SCHOOL 


HOW  TO  ESTIMATE 
ON  PRINTING 


By 
HARRY  M.  BASFORD 


NEW  YORK 

OSWALD  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 
1913 


'v 


Copyright  1913  by  the 
Oswald  Publishing  Company 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

i  What  is  an  Estimate 1 

ii  Theoretical  and  Actual  Cost 10 

in  Profits  from  Printing 16 

iv  Estimating  on  Stock 24 

v  Estimating  Composition 35 

vi  Costs  in  the  Press-Room 42 

vn  Costs  in  the  Bindery 4 

^x 

vin  Miscellaneous  Items  of  Cost    .......  57 

ix  Advice  for  Young  Estimators 66 

x  Estimator  and  Salesman 73 

xi  Forget-me-nots  for  Estimators 79 

xn  Tools  and  Tables    .  87 


Mi  9 
I  6*  U    y 


CHAPTER       ONE 


WHAT  IS  AN   ESTIMATE? 

Some  Suggestions  on  Finding  Job  Costs  and  Quoting 
Prices  on  Printing 


A 


N  ESTIMATE  is  a  statement  of  the 
probable  cost  of  a  job  of  printing.  It 
is  usually  made  by  an  estimator  in  the 
house  which  he  represents,  or  by  a 
salesman  often  in  the  presence  of  the 
prospective  customer.  In  the  first  case, 
the  estimator  has  the  advantage  of  the  tools  and  tables 
of  his  trade  with  which  to  work,  and  he  usually  has 
more  time  in  which  to  prepare  the  estimate  and  to  make 
the  price  which  is  to  bs  quoted.  In  the  other  case,  the 
estimate  is  necessarily  made  more  hurriedly  and  is*  less 
apt  to  be  as  correct  as  the  one  made  in  the  office.  For 
this  reason,  many  large  printing  houses  are  discouraging 
the  custom  of  salesmen  making  estimates  upon  the  work 
which  they  sell.  The  better  plan  seems  to  be  for  the 
salesmen  to  secure  the  specifications  of  the  work  of  their 
customers  for  the  office  estimator  to  use  in  making  the 
estimate  and  the  price. 

1 


THE    ESTIMATE   BLANK 


j  An  essential  thing  for  the  estimator  is  a  correct  blank 
&>r  recording  the  cost  of  various  kinds  of  work  entering 
jnto  the  job.  These  blanks  can  be  bound  in  books  of  one 
Hundred  or  more  leaves  or  made  in  loose-leaf  form  for 
use  in  a  bindery.  Both  styles  have  their  advantages.  In 
using  the  bound  book,  it  is  convenient  to  have  the  form 
printed  on  the  right-hand  page,  leaving  the  left-hand 
page  blank  for  figuring  the  details  of  the  job,  and  file 
each  book  away  when  filled.  With  the  loose-leaf  book, 
old  forms  can  be  removed  and  filed  in  the  transfer  binder 
for  future  reference,  keeping  the  current  estimates  on 
the  desk. 

In  the  interests  of  accuracy,  the  estimate  blank  should 
correspond  with  the  form  of  the  cost-finding  system  in 
use  in  the  plant,  and  as  the  standard  cost -finding  system 
of  the  United  Typothetae  of  America  has  proven  success- 
ful for  ascertaining  factory  costs,  the  estimate  blank  may 
conform  very  closely  to  this  system.  It  is  not  necessary 
that  every  possible  item  of  cost  should  be  printed  on  the 
blank,  but  the  more  common  kinds  of  work  should  be 
enumerated  and  the  blanks  should  be  as  complete  as 
possible  to  assist  the  estimator  so  that  no  items  may  be 
overlooked  or  forgotten  in  the  estimate. 

An  important  item  to  remember  in  estimating  is  the 
quality  of  work  that  is  demanded  by  the  customer.  If 
the  estimate  man  can  get  a  correct  idea  of  just  the  kind 
of  a  job  that  is  wanted,  he  can  make  a  more  intelligent 
estimate  and  a  more  correct  price  than  he  can  without 
this  information ;  salesmen  and  office  estimators  should 
work  in  harmony  to  this  end,  which  is  to  the  interest  of 


ACCESS   TO    RECORDS  8 

all  parties  concerned.  The  character  of  the  work  pro- 
duced by  the  shop  should  also  be  considered.  For  in- 
stance, some  plants  make  a  specialty  of  commercial 
printing,  and  when  called  upon  to  produce  an  unusually 
fine  booklet  or  piece  of  advertising,  the  cost  of  this  work 
will  run  higher  than  would  often  be  expected,  on  account 
of  the  workmen  being  unfamiliar  with  the  class  of  work 
required.  For  the  same  reason  prices  on  law  briefs,  rail- 
road tariffs,  etc.,  show  a  great  variation,  and  one  shop 
can  often  produce  a  job  of  this  kind  at  a  profit  with  a 
price  as  low  or  lower  than  the  cost  in  some  other  shop. 
A  correct  understanding  of  this  condition  will  materially 
assist  the  estimator  in  his  work  and  will  add  to  the  busi- 
ness and  profit  of  the  house  which  he  represents. 

The  estimator  should  have  access  to  the  job  checks 
and  all  records  of  the  house,  that  he  may  frequently  re- 
fer to  these  to  assist  him  in  his  work.  Conditions  in  the 
printing  trade  are  changing  and  costs  will  vary  from 
month  to  month  necessarily.  The  estimator  should  keep 
in  close  touch  with  these  changing  conditions,  and  be 
able  to  take  advantage  of  everything  which  tends  to 
lower  the  price  of  work  in  any  department. 

The  charm  of  the  printing  business  lies  in  the  variety 
of  work,  and  no  two  jobs  are  ever  exactly  alike.  There  is, 
however,  a  similarity  in  the  work,  which  is  of  great  bene- 
fit in  estimating,  and  a  puzzling  point  of  probable  cost 
can  often  be  settled  by  reference  to  the  records  of  some 
other  similar  job  which  has  been  completed. 

Observation,  the  habit  of  reference  and  experience  are 
three  requisites  which  make  for  a  successful  estimate  man, 


4  OUT   OF    TOWN   WORK 

and  a  person  who  is  following  this  rather  arduous  occupa- 
tion will  succeed  or  fail  on  these  three  points.  Observation 
is  largely  a  matter  of  training,  and  the  habit  of  reference 
is  something  any  one  can  acquire ;  experience  comes  with 
the  years,  and  the  man  who  can  give  a  correct  estimate 
on  the  cost  of  a  piece  of  printing  by  merely  looking  at  it 
can  only  do  so  by  virtue  of  his  years  of  experience  in  the 
business. 

Estimating  on  out  of  town  work  is  perhaps  the  hardest 
that  comes  to  the  estimator's  table.  He  is  usually  re- 
quired to  be  a  good  guesser  and  must  quote  a  price  by 
mail  from  information  which  is  often  lacking  in  import- 
ant details,  and  is  seldom  as  complete  as  he  would  wish 
it.  This  is  another  place,  however,  where  his  experience 
will  stand  him  in  good  hand,  and  by  being  conservative 
he  may  succeed  in  this,  the  most  difficult  part  of  his 
work.  An  important  point  to  remember  in  estimating  on 
work  for  out  of  town  customers  is  to  base  the  estimate 
on  paper  stock  of  which  samples  should  be  submitted, 
and  on  a  style  of  work  which  is  definitely  described  or 
shown  by  sample.  The  point  is  to  make  a  price  on  the 
job  as  the  plant  expects  to  deliver  it,  instead  of  on  the 
faulty  specifications  which  may  be  contained  in  the  let- 
ter of  inquiry.  This  will  obviate  misunderstandings  and 
a  possible  loss,  and  is  the  one  successful  method,  I  be- 
lieve, of  quoting  prices  by  mail  to  out  of  town  patrons. 

In  estimating  a  job,  I  lay  the  specifications  before  me, 
select  the  stock  and  enter  on  the  blank  the  quantity  of 
paper,  size,  weight,  number  of  sheets  and  cost;  then  I 
take  up  the  composition — the  machine  composition  first, 


THE    HAPPY   MEDIUM   OF    PRICE  5 

if  there  is  any,  then  the  hand  work,  the  proof-reading 
and  distribution  and  make-up,  in  this  order.  On  the  or- 
dinary small  job  the  lock-up  comes  next,  then  the  press- 
work  and  ink  and  last  the  bindery  work.  There  are,  of 
course,  many  other  items  that  may  enter  into  a  job,  but 
these  enumerated  will  be  found  in  nearly  every  job  and 
form  the  principal  basis  of  an  estimate.  When  the  total 
cost  has  been  found,  I  consider  the  job  from  a  general 
standpoint  and  from  the  standpoint  of  the  printers  who 
I  think  are  likely  to  bid  on  the  same  work.  I  check  over 
the  items  to  verify  each  one,  and  with  all  the  informa- 
tion before  me,  make  the  price  what  seems  right  and 
proper,  all  things  considered.  The  condition  of  work  in 
the  house  must  be  known,  the  time  of  delivery  which 
must  be  promised  and  other  details  of  equipment,  con- 
flicting work  which  may  be  in  the  plant,  etc. ,  and  all  of 
these  should  enter  into  the  price  decided  on,  in  some 
way. 

The  estimator  is  always  confronted  with  the  error  of 
fixing  the  price  too  high  to  get  the  job  or  too  low  to  show 
a  profit,  and  he  should  to  the  best  of  his  ability  choose 
the  happy  medium  of  price,  which  will  secure  the  work 
and  also  show  a  profit.  This,  of  course,  cannot  always  be 
done,  but  he  should  approximate  this  result  as  nearly  as 
possible. 

Now,  to  take  up  the  items  which  enter  into  the  ordi- 
nary job  of  commercial  printing,  such  as  letterheads,  en- 
velops, cards,  etc.  These  items  are  the  stock_cutting  and 
handling  of  stock,  hand  composition f  lock-up  and  press- 
work,  and  often  padding.  Other  items,  such  as  proof- 


6  BOOK   AND    CATALOG   WORK 

reading,  distribution  and  ink,  delivery  and  wrapping  can 
usually  be  eliminated  from  work  of  this  kind,  as  the  cost 
is  so  small  as  not  to  affect  the  total  cost  materially. 
Many  houses  have  a  schedule  of  prices  on  work  of  this 
class  which  can  safely  be  followed  in  quoting  prices,  and 
are  valuable  in  comparing  with  estimates  made.  It  is  not, 
however,  with  this  class  of  work  that  the  ordinary  printer 
has  much  trouble. 

Book  and  catalog  work  offer  more  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  making  correct  estimates.  Work  of  this  character 
usually  amounts  to  more  money  .and  requires  a  more  care- 
ful and  detailed  estimate.  In  addition  to  the  items 
enumerated  as  entering  into  the  cost  of  commercial 
work,  book  work  requires  that  such  items  as  proof-read- 
ing, distribution,  slip-sheeting,  cuts,  alterations  and  cor- 
rections, and  the  various  departments  of  bindery  work 
be  considered,  and  these  are  often  difficult  to  estimate 
exactly.  An  important  point  to  remember  in  estimating 
on  catalog  or  book  work  is  never  to  make  an  estimate 
without  first  seeing  the  copy.  Don't  take  a  customer's 
word  for  it  that  his  copy  is  of  a  certain  character  or 
amount,  but  insist  on  seeing  it  for  yourself.  The  matter 
of  slip-sheeting  must  be  considered,  and  a  decision 
reached  as  to  whether  it  will  be  necessary  or  not  on  the 
job,  and  the  cuts  to  be  used  should  be  seen,  if  they  are 
to  be  furnished  by  the  customer,  as  old  cuts  often  require 
a  considerable  amount  of  work  to  make  them  type-high 
before  they  can  be  used.  The  wrapping  and  delivery  of 
work  of  this  character  is  often  important  and  will  some 
times  amount  to  a  considerable  sum  of  money  in  the  esti- 


BLANK  BOOKS  AND  FACSIMILE  LETTERS    7 

mate.  The  probable  changes  that  may  be  made  by  the 
customer  on  proofs  should  also  be  estimated,  as  it  is  more 
satisfactory  to  have  as  much  of  these  alterations  covered 
by  the  original  estimate  as  possible. 

Blank  book  work  is  difficult  for  many  estimators  to 
handle  successfully.  Some  customers  have  a  very  vague 
idea  of  the  kind  of  book  they  want,  and  their  copy  is 
often  hard  to  follow.  In  my  own  experience  I  have  found 
that  a  sheet  showing  pictures  in  colors  of  various  styles 
of  binding  is  a  great  help  in  dealing  with  customers* 
The  matter  of  proof  of  ruling  should  be  explained  when 
required,  and  a  charge  should  always  be  made  for  hand- 
ruled  proofs.  The  finishing  and  lettering  of  books  can 
only  be  estimated  by  knowing  the  amount  of  work  of  this 
character  that  is  required,  and  the  estimator  should  be 
furnished  with  this  information. 

Loose-leaf  sheets  come  under  the  same  general  head 
as  blank  book  work  and  should  be  treated  accordingly. 

Facsimile  letter  work  is  largely  used  in  these  days  of 
extensive  advertising  campaigns,  and  the  printer  is  often 
asked  to  compete  with  other  methods  of  producing  imi- 
tation typewritten  letters.  Careful  investigation  of  the  cost 
of  this  kind  of  work  as  shown  by  the  cost  records  will  give 
the  best  basis  for  making  estimates  on  orders  of  this  kind. 

Edition  books  and  case  book  work  are  not  common  to 
the  small  shop  and  an  estimate  on  work  of  this  kind 
should  be  most  carefully  made.  For  this  reason,  consul- 
tation with  the  foreman  and  heads  of  all  departments 
will  be  of  benefit  to  the  estimator  and  the  cost  record* 
on  similar  work  should  be  frequently  consulted. 


6 TABULAR    AND    COLOR   WORK 

Stock  certificates  and  bonds  may  be  classified  together, 
because  they  emanate  from  the  same  class  of  patrons. 
The  ordinary  printer  produces  stock  certificates  by  using 
a  lithographed  form,  on  which  he  prints  the  name  of  the 
company,  etc.,  and  these  can  usually  be  sold  on  the 
schedule  basis,  as  the  variation  in  the  cost  is  very  slight, 
and  any  change  from  the  usual  form  is  easily  detected. 
Bonds  are  often  produced  in  the  same  way,  using  litho- 
graphed forms.  In  making  a  price  on  bonds,  an  important 
point  to  remember  is  the  way  in  which  the  coupons  are 
to  be  attached  to  the  bond.  If  they  are  to  be  stripped 
over  the  face  of  the  bond  the  cost  will  be  considerably 
higher  than  if  they  are  left  on  the  same  sheet  down  one  or 
both  sides.  The  number  of  coupons  indicating  the  number 
of  changes  is  also  important  and  should  not  be  overlooked. 

Tabular  work,  such  as  railroad  tariffs,  time  cards,  etc., 
is  in  a  class  by  itself.  Many  large  houses  refuse  to  quote 
prices  on  this  kind  of  work,  which  comes  from  the  rail- 
roads and  varies  so  much  that  a  correct  estimate  is  very 
difficult  to  make.  An  approximate  price  will  bring  much 
better  results  and  if  the  railroad  is  a  regular  patron,  it 
will  usually  be  satisfied  with  this  sort  of  a  price. 

Post  cards  and  color  work  of  all  kinds  are  not  common 
to  the  small  shop,  but  in  estimating  a  job  of  this  kind, 
it  should  be  remembered  that  color  work  costs  more  than 
black  and  white  and  that  the  press  time  is  usually  higher, 
on  account  of  the  accurate  register  required-  High  stand- 
ards of  color  work  have  been  set  by  the  leading  color 
printers  of  this  country,  and  a  customer  is  apt  to  expect 
equally  as  good  results  from  his  own  printer. 


. BANK   AND   LAW   WORK 9 

Bank  work,  which  includes  pass  books,  checks,  drafts, 
deposit  slips,  etc. ,  is  usually  done  by  houses  that  make 
a  specialty  of  this  sort  of  work,  but  every  printer  is  liable 
to  have  more  or  less  work  of  this  kind,  and  should  be 
prepared  to  estimate  the  cost  correctly,  so  as  to  sell  at  a 
profit.  Pass  books  are  made  in  standard  sizes,  and  can 
usually  be  sold  from  a  schedule  price  list  covering  vari- 
ous quantities  of  the  different  styles  of  books.  Checks 
and  drafts  must  be  estimated  on  their  merits,  and  deposit 
slips  are  usually  sold  at  or  below  cost  in  connection  with 
the  sale  of  other  goods.  In  printing  deposit  slips,  the 
printer  should  try  in  every  way  to  reduce  his  cost  of 
manufacture  to  the  lowest  point  for  this  reason. 

Law  books  usually  cost  more  to  produce  than  other 
books  of  an  equal  number  of  pages,  and  must  be  very 
carefully  proof-read  and  corrected.  This  should  not  be 
lost  sight  of  in  estimating  this  kind  of  work. 

The  square  inch  method  of  estimating  has  found  con- 
siderable favor  in  some  parts  of  the  country.  While  it  is 
not  my  intention  to  go  into  the  details  of  this  method,  I 
may  state  that  it  is  based  upon  the  principle  of  dividing 
all  printing  into  classes.  The  work  to  be  estimated  is 
compared  with  and  consigned  to  one  of  these  classes, 
and  the  cost  estimated  upon  the  number  of  square  inches 
of  composition  according  to  the  basis  of  cost  in  the  class 
to  which  it  belongs. 


CHAPTER       TWO 


THEORETICAL  AND  ACTUAL  COST 

A  Practical  Comparison  of  Estimated  Costs  and  the  Real 
Cost  of  Production  as  Shown  by  Records 

ANY  estimators  frequently  find  that 
there  is  a  considerable  difference  be- 
tween their  estimated  costs  on  work  and 
the  actual  cost  as  shown  by  the  time 
sheets  and  other  records  of  production 
in  the  plant,  and  the  enterprising,  ambi- 


M 


tious  estimate  man  will  endeavor  to  study  this  problem  of 
the  theoretical  or  probable  cost  as  compared  with  the  actual 
or  working  cost  of  a  job,  and  to  search  out  and  find  a  reason 
for  any  discrepancy  which  may  exist. 

An  estimate  of  the  cost  of  a  job  will  seldom  conform 
exactly  with  the  actual  cost,  but  it  should  be  made  to  ap- 
proximate as  nearly  as  possible  to  the  real  cost.  While 
this  will  not  be  possible  on  a  certain  job,  the  records  for 
a  month  or  for  a  year  should  show  that  the  average  vari- 
ation is  slight. 

The  estimator  figures  the  cost  of  a  certain  job,  rightly 
thinking  that  it  will  be  printed  on  a  press  of  as  small  size 

10 


UNEXPECTED    COSTS  11 

as  possible  to  handle  the  sheet.  The  cost  records  may 
show  that  this  job  was  printed  on  a  cylinder  press  in- 
stead of  upon  a  platen  press.  This  may  be  brought  about 
by  an  excess  of  work  in  the  press-room  at  a  certain  time 
for  the  platen  presses  and  a  lack  of  work  for  the  cylin- 
der presses.  This  condition  would  make  it  more  profit- 
able, or  perhaps  mean  a  less  loss  to  the  house,  to  run  the 
small  job  on  the  cylinder  press  rather  than  to  let  the  cyl- 
inder remain  idle  and  delay  the  delivery  of  the  job  in 
question.  A  good  foreman  will  not  make  a  practice  of 
doing  this,  but  will  arrange  his  equipment  as  well  as  pos- 
sible to  take  care  of  the  work  which  comes  to  him  in  the 
most  economical  way ;  but  good  pressmen  are  not  always 
easy  to  secure,  and  a  printing  house  will  not  lay  off  a 
good  workman  because  there  is  a  scarcity  of  work  for  him 
for  a  few  days,  and  it  is  better  for  such  a  pressman  to 
run  small  jobs  on  cylinder  presses  for  two  or  three  days, 
rather  than  to  have  them  remain  idle,  especially  if  much 
of  the  work  has  been  promised  for  immediate  delivery, 
as  is  often  the  case. 

Overtime,  night  work,  and  Sunday  work,  which  must 
be  paid  for  at  an  advanced  rate,  will  also  affect  the  cost 
of  a  job  and  show  a  variance  from  the  original  estimate, 
which  often  cannot  be  avoided.  The  estimator  should  al- 
low for  this  extra  cost  whenever  possible,  and  by  a  little 
foresight  overtime  can  usually  be  avoided,  where  it  is 
not  provided  for  in  the  estimate.  It  must  also  be  remem- 
bered that  cost  records  will  very  often  show  several  hours 
of  overtime  recorded  on  one  particular  job,  in  order  to 
make  delivery  on  tune  on  some  other  job.  In  other  words, 


12  OVERHEAD    EXPENSES 

overtime  will  show  on  the  wrong  job,  and  this  fact  must 
be  considered,  when  it  can  be  predicted  by  the  estimator 
in  making  his  estimate  and  fixing  a  price. 

Overhead  expense  is  an  item  which  enters  into  the 
expenses  of  operating  every  department  of  a  printing 
plant.  This  may  amount  to  fifty  per  cent  of  the  total 
operating  expense.  It  may  amount  to  one  hundred  per 
cent  of  the  pay-roll  of  the  department.  This  overhead 
expense  is  properly  taken  care  of  by  the  Standard  Uni- 
form Cost-finding  System,  as  the  cost  per  hour  of  work 
of  every  kind  includes  the  overhead  expense  of  this  kind 
of  work.  There  are  cases,  however,  when  it  can  be  fore- 
seen that  a  certain  job  will  require  a  more  than  usual 
amount  of  non-productive  time,  or  overhead  expense, 
and  when  this  can  be  foreseen,  it  should  be  provided  for 
in  the  estimate.  For  instance,  if  it  can  be  reasonably 
supposed  that  a  certain  job  will  require  particular  atten- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  foreman  of  the  department,  or 
any  member  of  the  office  force,  this  job  should  bring  a 
price  somewhat  higher  than  the  ordinary  run  of  work. 

Selling  expense  must  also  be  reckoned  with,  and  if  it 
is  evident  that  a  certain  customer  requires  a  great  deal 
of  time  to  secure  and  handle  his  orders,  on  account  or 
making  frequent  changes  in  copy,  or  for  other  reasons, 
his  work  should  bring  a  price  that  will  cover  such  expense. 

Office  expense,  advertising  and  other  items  must  be 
covered  in  some  way  by  the  work  turned  out  in  the  plant, 
and  while  these  may  be  properly  proportioned  to  each 
department,  great  care  must  be  taken  that  they  are  so 
covered. 


CO-OPERATION    WITH    DEPARTMENTS    13 

The  non-producers  of  the  plant,  both  in  the  office  and 
factory,  must  not  be  overlooked,  and  their  salaries  or 
•wages  must  be  covered  in  some  way  in  the  basis  of  costs 
used  by  the  estimator. 

The  cost  records  of  a  plant,  particularly  where  an 
absolute  cost  system  is  in  operation,  are  almost  invalu- 
able to  the  estimator.  He  should  value  and  use  them,  in 
making  his  estimates,  daily.  A  good  plan  to  follow  is 
never  to  quote  a  price  on  a  re-order  of  a  job  until  you 
have  first  examined  the  cost  records  when  the  work  was 
done  before.  This  plan  will  both  make  and  save  money 
for  any  house  which  follows  it  out,  and  will  help  the  esti- 
mator materially  in  gaining  a  correct  idea  of  the  exact 
cost  of  work  in  the  plant. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  new  work  printed  from 
manuscript  copy  costs  more  to  produce  than  a  re-order 
of  the  same  job,  where  you  have  the  printed  copy  to 
work  from.  In  quoting  a  price  on  a  re-order  this  fact 
should  redound  to  the  profit  of  the  house. 

Co-operatioji  with  the  heads  of  all  departments  is  essen- 
tial to  the  profitable  conducting  of  a  printing  plant,  and 
the  estimator  should  have  no  hesitancy  in  conferring 
with  foremen  regarding  the  probable  cost  of  work,  and 
in  taking  up  with  them  the  cost  of  any  job  which  may 
seem  unreasonable  by  the  showing  of  the  cost  records.  It 
is  not  an  admission  of  ignorance  to  confer  with  the  fore- 
men, and  will  often  result  in  valuable  suggestions  being 
offered  back  and  forth.  The  estimator  should  have  a 
friend  in  every  foreman  in  the  plant,  and  he  can  best 
secure  this  friendship  by  letting  them  know  that  he  is 


14  A   COST    SYSTEM   NECESSARY 

not  anxious  to  show  up  their  faults  or  errors,  but  is  only 
working  for  the  good  of  the  house.  Lost  time  and  costly 
leaks  of  various  kinds  can  often  be  located  and  remedied 
by  the  co-operation  of  estimators  and  foremen,  and  the 
estimator  can  help  the  foreman  by  assisting  him  to  keep 
the  machinery  running  and  in  promises  of  delivery  which 
he  is  obliged  to  make. 

The  theoretical  cost  can  be  made  to  approach  most 
nearly  to  the  actual  cost  of  work  by  getting  the  largest 
possible  product  from  the  plant  each  day,  by  keeping 
the  non-productive  hours  as  low  as  possible  and  getting 
the  highest  speed  from  each  machine.  The  real  cost  will 
be  found  to  approach  most  nearly  to  the  estimated  cost 
if  the  shop  is  kept  crowded  with  work  that  is  produced 
in  the  most  economical  way  by  the  foreman. 

If  a  job  is  estimated  to  be  run  in  a  certain  way  and  on 
a  certain  price,  the  foreman  should  be  advised  of  this,  so 
that  he  may  run  the  work  in  the  way  estimated,  if  pos- 
sible. 

The  study  of  the  problem  of  estimating  is  based  on 
the  supposition  that  a  cost-finding  system  is  in  use.  The 
system  must  be  accurately  kept  up,  however,  if  results 
are  to  be  satisfactory.  For  instance,  I  know  of  a  plant 
which  when  a  new  machine  is  purchased  adds  the  cost 
of  this  machine  to  the  operating  expense  of  the  depart- 
ment for  the  month  in  which  it  is  paid.  I  believe  that 
this  is  a  mistake,  as  new  machinery  or  equipment  of  any 
kind  properly  belongs  under  the  heading  of  investment. 
Small  supplies  purchased  are  properly  put  under  the 
heading  of  operating  expenses  for  the  month  in  which 


AVERAGE  COST  OF  MACHINES     15 

the  money  is  expended,  but  any  large  purchase,  if  thrown 
into  the  operating  expenses,  will  tend  to  affect  the  cost 
per  hour  of  work  in  that  department  for  the  month  and 
make  it  appear  abnormally  large. 

In  estimating  the  cost  per  hour  of  a  certain  machine, 
it  should  be  remembered  that  this  cost  will  vary  from 
month  to  month,  depending  on  the  number  of  hours 
which  the  machine  is  operated  each  month.  To  offset 
this  variation,  it  is  well  to  find  the  average  cost  of  a  ma- 
chine for  six  months  or  a  year,  and  to  use  this  cost  as  a 
basis  of  estimating  until  it  is  shown  that  there  is  a  per- 
manent change,  either  up  or  down,  in  the  cost.  For  in- 
stance, if  a  certain  machine  shows  a  cost  per  hour  of 
$1.25  one  month,  $1.50  the  next  month,  $1.40  the  third 
month  and  $1.35  the  fourth  month,  it  will  be  safe  to  es- 
timate the  cost  per  hour  of  that  machine  at  $1.45  or 
$1.40,  while  if  a  machine  should  show  a  cost  per  hour  of 
$1.50  for  three  or  four  months'  running  when  the  pre- 
vious cost  had  been  $1.25,  it  would  be  proper  to  raise  the 
estimate  to  $1.50. 


CHAPTER       THREE 

PROFITS  FROM   PRINTING 

What  Constitutes  a  Proper  Profit  on  the  Items  of  Cost 
which  Enter  into  the  Finished  Product  ? 


HE  profit  on  a  job  of  printing  is  ob- 
viously the  most  essential  thing  to  the 
proprietor  of  a  printing  plant.  It  is  the 
one  part  of  the  price  received  for  the 
work  which  he  can  appropriate  to  him- 
self for  his  own  personal  desires,  and  no 
matter  how  accurately  the  costs  of  a  plant  may  be  recorded 
or  how  accurately  the  estimates  may  be  made,  if  the  price 
received  for  the  work  does  not  include  this  elusive  and 
attractive  profit,  the  plant  is  not  operated  on  business 
principles. 

It  is  right  and  proper  that  a  printing  house  should 
make  a  profit  on  the  stock,  the  labor  and  all  purchased 
items  which  may  enter  into  the  cost  of  production.  What 
this  profit  should  be  is  a  matter  upon  which  all  printers 
do  not  agree,  and  the  manner  of  arriving  at  this  profit  is 
quite  different  in  various  plants  thruout  the  country. 
Some  printers  contend  that  they  should  have  a  uniform 

16 


THE    PROPER   PROFIT  17 

profit  of  from  fifteen  to  fifty  per  cent  on  the  total  cost  of 
the  complete  job.  Others  maintain  that  they  should  re- 
ceive a  certain  profit  on  the  paper  stock  used  on  the  job 
and  a  different  percentage  of  profit  on  the  cost  of  labor. 
It  is  not  my  intention  to  argue  this  question  or  to  state 
which  method  I  believe  is  most  correct,  but  I  agree  with 
all  printers  that  there  should  be  a  profit,  and  that  that 
profit  should  be  a  liberal  one  whenever  possible. 

It  is  plainly  to  be  seen  that  the  profit  on  a  small  job, 
say  one  thousand  letterheads,  should  be  more  in  propor- 
tion to  the  amount  received  for  the  work  than  the  per- 
centage of  profit  received  on  a  large  job  amounting  to 
several  thousand  dollars.  The  estimator  should  be  broad- 
minded  enough  to  recognize  this  fact  and  to  work  in 
harmony  with  the  owners  of  the  plant  he  represents 
in  securing  a  profit  on  the  work  that  he  handles  which 
will  show  dividends  at  the  end  of  the  year.  The  mat- 
ter of  the  proprietor's  salary  should  not  be  overlooked  in 
estimating  the  total  cost  of  running  the  plant  during  the 
year.  If  a  man  cannot  draw  from  the  printing  business, 
which  he  owns  and  manages,  a  salary  commensurate  with 
his  ability  in  the  business  world  and  make  a  profit  on  the 
work  which  is  handled  above  that  salary,  he  had  better 
sell  his  printing  plant  and  either  go  to  work  for  some 
other  house  or  engage  in  some  other  line  of  business. 

My  plan  of  arriving  at  the  proper  price  to  be  placed  on 
a  job  of  printing,  whether  in  the  form  of  a  quotation  or 
on  the  invoice  when  the  work  has  been  completed,  is  to 
find  the  total  cost  of  the  job,  either  by  estimating  or  from 
the  cost  records,  in  case  the  work  has  already  been  com- 


18       CANNOT    CUT    ON    THE    HOUR    COST 

pleted,  and  then  to  consider  the  work  from  a  liberal 
standpoint  and  make  the  price  that  seems  correct,  all 
things  considered.  Such  conditions  as  competing  prices, 
the  customer's  standing  with  the  house  and  financial  re- 
sponsibility, prospects  of  future  work,  method  of  produc- 
tion ,  etc.,  should  enter  into  the  decision  in  fixing  the 
price,  and  I  believe  that  better  results  can  be  obtained 
by  this  method  than  by  standing  arbitrarily  for  a  fixed 
percentage  on  all  work.  By  my  reference  to  prospects 
for  future  business,  I  do  not  mean  to  infer  that  a  low 
price  should  generally  be  placed  upon  a  piece  of  work  in 
the  hopes  of  influencing  the  buyer  on  another  and  per- 
haps larger  job  in  the  future.  I  believe  that  every  job 
should  stand  on  its  own  bottom,  but  a  slight  price  con- 
cession can  sometimes  be  made  to  benefit  the  house  ma- 
terially in  securing  other  and  more  profitable  work.  The 
way  in  which  a  job  is  handled  may  make  it  possible  to 
secure  a  profit  of  forty,  fifty  or  even  a  greater  percentage, 
without  making  the  price  appear  unreasonably  high,  and 
all  these  things  should  be  considered  in  making  the  price. 
Many  estimators  make  the  fatal  mistake  of  estimating 
the  cost  per  hour  of  certain  work  at  a  certain  price  on 
one  job  and  at  a  lower  price  on  another  on  which  they 
have  keen  competition.  If  the  cost  per  hour  as  shown  by 
the  records  of  a  plant  is  correct,  it  cannot  be  cut.  This 
price  is  fixed,  if  originally  correct.  The  profit  on  a  job  can 
easily  be  cut,  and  too  often  is,  but  the  estimator  should 
never  attempt  to  lower  his  price  by  basing  his  estimated 
cost  upon  a  lower  cost  per  hour  than  that  shown  by  the 
records  of  the  plant. 


FILLERS   AND    RUSH   WORK  19 

It  is  often  contended  that  a  printer  should  make  a 
larger  profit  when  his  plant  is  working  to  its  capacity  and 
business  is  good  than  he  should  when  business  generally 
is  quiet  and  orders  are  hard  to  secure.  This  contention 
is  probably  correct  to  a  certain  extent.  It  is  good  policy 
to  "keep  the  shop  running,"  especially  if  you  have  em- 
ployees whom  you  consider  valuable  enough  to  wish  to 
retain,  which  you  can  only  do  by  giving  them  continual 
employment,  but  a  continued  practice  of  doing  work  at 
cost  or  at  a  very  small  margin  of  profit  is  a  bad  habit 
which  the  master  printer  should  avoid  as  far  as  possible. 
The  filler  job,  as  it  is  called,  which  is  taken  at  a  ridicu- 
lously low  price  for  the  sole  purpose  of  keeping  the  plant 
in  operation,  is  liable  to  prove  a  boomerang  to  the  pro- 
prietor instead  of  a  panacea  for  his  business  ills.  On  the 
other  hand,  all  overtime,  such  as  night  and  Sunday  work, 
should  be  carefully  recorded  and  charged  to  the  jobs 
which  occasion  this  additional  expense.  An  estimator 
should  always  have  this  matter  of  overtime  in  mind,  and 
should  make  his  estimates  cover  all  extra  expense  of  this 
kind  which  can  be  foreseen.  If  there  is  any  doubt  as  to 
the  ability  of  the  house  to  deliver  a  promised  rush  job  at 
a  certain  time  without  working  nights,  this  night  work 
should  certainly  be  added  to  the  estimated  cost  and  the 
price.  Genuine  rush  work  of  any  kind  should  be  estimated 
at  a  higher  price  than  the  ordinary  run  of  work,  and  by 
rush  work  in  this  instance  I  mean  work  which  must 
receive  special  attention  in  order  to  be  delivered  as  prom- 
ised. Extra  attention  costs  money  and  should  be  paid  for 
by  the  customer.  It  is  certainly  a  hard  matter  to  esti- 


20  METHODS    AND    MACHINERY 

mate  the  exact  additional  cost  which  a  rush  job  may  en- 
tail, but  this  can  be  well  covered  in  the  percentage  of 
profit  added  in  arriving  at  the  price.  For  instance,  if  you 
are  estimating  a  usual  percentage  of  thirty-three  and  one- 
third  per  cent  on  a  certain  kind  of  work,  this  same  class 
of  printing  should  pay  you  forty  to  fifty  per  cent  if  it 
must  be  delivered  within  an  unusually  short  time. 

Improved  methods  and  machinery  have  an  important 
bearing  upon  this  matter  of  profits.  If  you  add  a  press 
to  your  equipment,  by  which  you  have  a  product  of  ten 
thousand  sheets  per  hour  from  the  machine,  you  should 
certainly  share  in  the  advantages  secured  by  this  speed 
and  consequent  lowered  cost  per  thousand  of  presswork. 
I  do  not  believe  in  giving  the  customer  the  benefit  of 
new  machinery  which  may  be  installed,  but  this  state- 
ment is  subject  to  exception,  for  if  your  competitior  is 
operating  the  same  speed  press  that  you  are,  you  must 
compete  with  his  prices  in  the  open  market,  and  the 
chances  are  that  he  will  be  willing  to  at  least  divide  the 
benefits  of  this  press  with  his  customer.  A  safe  rule  to 
follow,  however,  is  this :  Secure  as  accurate  information 
as  possible  as  to  the  cost  per  hour  of  operating^  the  new 
machine  and  never  take  a  job  unless  it  shows  a  profit  over 
this  cost  per  hour. 

The  wily  estimator  will  consider  his  competitor's  cost 
and  equipment  as  well  as  his  own,  and  it  is  often  of  ad- 
vantage after  you  have  carefully  estimated  the  cost  of  a 
certain  job  to  make  a  new  estimate  of  the  cost  of  the  job 
in  your  competitor's  shop  based  on  his  plant  and  methods 
of  estimating  as  nearly  as  possible.  You  will  then  have 


WHAT    IS    PROFIT?  21 

two  sets  of  estimates  to  compare ;  your  own,  which  should 
be  correct,  and  an  approximate  idea  of  the  way  your  com- 
petitor will  estimate  the  job ;  and  this  comparison  may 
assist  you  in  fixing  a  price  which  will  secure  the  work 
you  are  bidding  on. 

The  capacity  of  the  plant  and  its  equipment  should  be 
considered  in  deciding  what  percentage  of  profit  is  a 
proper  one  in  your  own  case.  Generally  speaking,  the 
large  plant  can  do  work  on  a  lower  percentage  of  profit 
than  the  small  plant  because  of  the  increased  volume  of 
the  product,  but  the  small  shop  has  other  advantages 
over  the  larger  one,  especially  if  operated  in  the  smaller 
towns  where  wages  are  often  materially  less  than  in  the 
large  business  centers. 

A  speaker  at  an  organization  meeting  recently  intro- 
duced the  subject  of  profit  by  saying  that  in  these  times 
of  cost  systems,  expense  statements,  expert  advice  and  a 
thousand  and  one  fancy  terms,  the  average  man  is  apt  to 
become  confused  as  to  just  what  some  of  the  terms  mean. 
He  then  proceeds  to  define  profit  as  the  advantage  or 
gain  resulting  to  the  owner  of  capital  employed  in  an  un- 
dertaking—  the  excess  of  the  price  over  the  cost.  Profit 
in  the  printing  business,  he  says,  is  represented  by  the 
actual  net  gain  after  all  items  of  expenditure  have  been 
deducted,  including  the  salary  of  the  proprietor,  which 
should  be  liberal,  the  salaries  of  bookkeepers,  clerks, 
office  help,  etc.  He  quotes  one  of  the  leading  printers 
of  the  West  for  the  statement  that  if  he  were  entering 
the  printing  business  tomorrow,  he  would  first  secure  the 
services  of  a  competent  bookkeeper  and  then  a  few  print- 


22  WHAT   COMES   BEFORE   IfROFIT? 

ers,  but  that  the  bookkeeper  would  make  him  the  most 
money.  Following  this,  he  says  that  office  stationery  and 
every  other  item  of  expense  that  it  is  not  possible  to  charge 
to  some  particular  job  should  be  covered  in  the  general 
expenses.  Before  the  profit  is  reached,  advertising, 
cigars,  treats  to  customers,  telephone,  etc.,  including 
donations  and  dues  to  business  organizations  should  all 
be  covered.  Such  items  as  rent,  heat,  power,  light,  water 
rent,  gas,  etc.,  should  be  distributed  over  the  various 
departments  in  proportion  to  their  use,  and  interest  and 
discounts  must  be  taken  care  of,  together  with  the  de- 
preciation, interests  on  investments,  bad  debts  and  taxes. 
Referring  to  the  subject  of  depreciation,  he  advances  the 
view  that  the  customer  should  pay  for  this  item,  because 
he  is  the  one  who  is  constantly  wearing  out  the  equip- 
ment. He  offers  the  suggestion  that  a  charge  for  depre- 
ciation should  be  made  high  enough  so  that  when  the 
time  comes  to  replace  old  machinery,  type,  etc.,  you 
will  have  the  wherewithal  to  do  it.  He  offers  the  further 
suggestion  that  as  money  is  worth  six  per  cent,  if  you 
are  not  making  a  net  six  per  cent  in  addition  to  your 
salary,  you  had  better  sell  out  the  business,  invest  the 
money  in  a  high-class  first  mortgage,  get  a  job,  and  at  the 
end  of  the  year  you  will  not  only  have  more  money,  but 
better  health  and  a  smoother  forehead.  He  believes  that 
a  certain  amount  should  be  charged  up  each  month  to 
indemnify  the  printer  for  interest  on  every  dollar  in- 
vested in  the  business  and  for  the  item  of  bad  accounts 
which  cannot  be  collected.  The  items  enumerated  con- 
stitute the  expense  account,  and  over  against  this  item 


PROFIT    ON    EVERY  JOB  23 

of  expense  should  be  placed  your  total  sales,  and  any 
other  source  of  income  and  your  cash  discount  (the  money 
made  by  discounting  your  purchase  bills).  The  difference 
between  these  two  amounts  constitutes  your  profit.  < 

In  conclusion,  he  urges  printers  to  insist  on  making  a 
profit  on  every  job  handled ;  first,  because  it  is  the  only 
square  way  of  doing  business,  being  fair  to  all  your  custom- 
ers, and  secondly,  because  it  is  fair  to  yourself.  His  closing 
words  were:  "You  are  worthy  of  your  hire  and  of  the 
respect  of  the  people  who  buy  your  wares,  and  to  main- 
tain both  you  must  conduct  a  profitable  business  " 


Ml        III 


CHAPTER      FOUR 

ESTIMATING  ON  STOCK 

Practical  Advice  on  Estimating  and  the  Economical 
Use  of  Paper  Stock  by  the  Printer 

HE  estimating  of  the  paper  stock  is 
often  considered  as  the  easiest  part  of 
the  estimate  of  a  job  of  printing,  but 
there  is  no  item  that  enters  into  the  cost 
of  the  product  more  important  than  the 
paper  stock,  and  while  the  cost  of  the 


stock  would  seem  to  be  a  simple  and  easy  matter  to  de- 
termine, it  is,  nevertheless,  often  extremely  difficult  to 
make  the  cost  of  the  stock  harmonize  with  the  price  which 
must  be  quoted  in  order  to  get  the  work,  and  in  the  select- 
ing, buying  and  use  of  stock  some  printers  are  able  to 
add  materially  to  their  year's  profits,  while  others  are 
frequently  responsible  for  serious  losses  thru  the  careless 
consideration  which  they  give  to  this  very  important  item. 
Paper  stock  is  one  item  of  an  estimate  the  cost  of 
which  per  pound  or  ream  is  fixed,  and  the  paper  dealer 
is  not  troubled  with  the  same  class  of  worries  which  harass 
the  master  printer.  The  dealer  merely  delivers  the 

24 


WASTE    AND    SCRAP   STOCK  25 

stock  that  is  ordered  and  finds  no  trouble  in  billing  it  at 
the  highest  price  that  he  can  secure.  The  proposition  of 
making  a  profit  on  this  stock  is  up  to  the  salesman  and 
the  estimator,  and  it  is  my  desire  to  show  how  stock  can 
be  utilized  to  the  best  advantage  and  how  estimates  upon 
this  item  should  be  made. 

One  of  the  first  points  that  the  estimator  should  always 
remember  is  the  matter  of  waste  in  cutting,  handling  and 
printing.  This  waste  always  amounts  to  something  and 
often  runs  as  high  as  five,  ten,  or  often  a  greater  per  cent 
of  the  actual  number  of  sheets  delivered  on  the  job.  The 
exact  amount  of  this  loss  should  be  estimated  as  nearly 
as  possible  and  added  to  the  estimate.  Waste  is  an  im- 
portant item  in  every  shop,  for  many  jobs  are  necessarily 
cut  from  sizes  of  paper  which  leave  a  considerable  scrap 
when  it  is  first  cut.  All  of  this  scrap  stock  should  be 
carefully  placed  upon  shelves  with  a  memorandum  of  the 
size,  weight  and  number  of  sheets,  and  should  be  used 
on  work  whenever  possible.  The  estimator  should  not 
make  the  common  mistake,  however,  of  figuring  a  lower 
cost  on  this  waste  than  regular  stock  would  amount  to, 
as  this  waste  should  in  every  case  be  added  profit  for  the 
house,  and  the  advantage  gained  in  this  way  is  only  a 
fair  offset  for  the  frequent  losses  thru  spoiled  work  and 
from  other  causes  which  may  properly  be  classed  as  the 
'  'hazards  of  the  game. ' '  A  good  plan  for  the  handling 
of  scrap  stock  is  to  furnish  stock  cutters  with  rubber 
stamps,  so  that  they  may  stamp  upon  job  checks  where 
the  waste  is  used  the  word  "scrap,"  to  be  followed  by  a 
statement  like  the  following:  "Equal  to  sheets 


26         THE    COST    OF   STOCK   HANDLING 

size."  In  this  way  it  is  easy  to  estimate  the  cost 

of  the  waste  used  and  to  charge  for  it  accordingly. 

Of  course,  where  a  quantity  of  scrap  stock  can  be  used 
on  a  job,  which  must  be  taken  at  a  very  low  figure,  it 
can  some  times  be  put  into  the  estimate  at  a  discount 
price  from  the  regular  cost  of  the  stock  in  full  sheets, 
but  this  practice  should  be  the  exception  rather  than  the 
rule. 

The  cost  of  stock  handling  and  stock  cutting  should 
be  accurately  determined  from  the  records  of  the  cost 
system  in  use  in  the  plant,  and  this  should  be  covered 
by  an  item  in  the  estimate  of  every  job  requiring  ten 
minutes  or  more  for  the  handling  and  cutting. 

In  estimating  the  number  of  sheets  of  stock  that  will 
be  required  for  a  certain  job,  the  estimator  should  con- 
sider the  cutting  of  the  stock  from  every  angle,  so  as  to 
cut  as  many  pieces  as  possible  from  each  sheet.  Often 
by  an  odd  manner  of  cutting  from  ten  to  twenty-five 
per  cent  of  the  stock  can  be  saved,  and  no  saving  of  this 
kind  should  be  overlooked. 

In  buying  stock  from  samples  of  dealers  remote  from 
the  city  where  the  printer  is  located,  the  cost  of  freight 
should,  of  course,  be  added  to  the  cost  of  the  stock  in 
the  dealer's  warehouse,  and  this  matter  of  freight  can  be 
easily  figured  by  a  few  tables  of  information,  which 
should  be  carried  in  the  cost  and  price  book  of  the  esti- 
mator. I  have  found  it  very  convenient  to  have  made  up 
a  table  showing  the  freight  rate  per  thousand  in  car  load 
lots  and  also  the  local  freight  rate  on  envelops  of  every 
grade,  size  and  weight  that  are  commonly  used.  By 


JUDGING   THE    QUALITY   OF   PAPER      27 

having  this  freight  in  cents  per  thousand  on  envelops,  the 
exact  cost  of  a  thousand  envelops  can  easily  be  ascer- 
tained. I  also  use  a  table  showing  the  cost  laid  down  per 
thousand  on  the  various  sizes,  grades  and  weights  of  en- 
velops commonly  carried  in  stock,  and  using  this  table 
as  a  basis,  it  is  a  simple  matter  to  estimate  the  proper 
price  per  thousand  on  these  various  envelops  in  lots 
ranging  from  five  hundred  to  ten  thousand.  This  table 
is  most  convenient  for  reference  when  a  price  is  requested 
on  a  quantity  of  envelops,  which  might  require  several 
minutes  to  estimate  each  time. 

The  estimator  should  be  a  good  judge  of  stock.  He 
should  be  familiar  with  the  methods  of  manufacture  of 
the  different  kinds  of  paper,  the  way  in  which  envelops 
are  made,  and  with  the  grades  of  paper  handled  by  the 
different  dealers  in  the  market  where  he  buys  his  sup- 
plies. He  should  be  able  to  state  the  approximate  value 
and  weight  of  any  sample  of  paper  submitted  to  him 
without  reference  to  catalogs  or  price  lists.  Knowledge 
of  this  kind  comes  only  thru  experience,  however,  and 
can  hardly  be  acquired  in  any  other  way.  The  marks  by 
which  any  paper  is  tested  are  its  color,  finish,  strength, 
fthickness  and  weight.  A  paper  tester  is  a  convenient 
device  fortesting  the  strength  of  papers  and  comparing 
one  with  another,  but  the  ambitious  estimate  man  will 
learn  to  judge  the  value  of  stock  quite  correctly  without 
the  use  of  any  helps  of  this  kind.  The  weight  and  qual- 
ity of  envelops  can  be  correctly  deduced  by  the  appear- 
ance, tearing  strength  and  general  "feel"  of  the  stock, 
a  characteristic  which  is  hard  to  describe,  but  which  I 


28       SUBMITTING    SAMPLES    O,F    PAPER 

believe  most  good  judges  of  paper  rely  upon  very  largely. 
Printers  are  frequently  required  to  match  samples  fur- 
nished by  the  customer.  These  samples  may  come  from 
any  part  of  the  world,  as  paper  making  is  an  occupa- 
tion which  is  followed  in  almost  all  civilized  countries, 
and  imported  papers  are  frequently  seen  and  used  in 
this  country.  My  experience  leads  me  to  believe  that  it 
is  far  better  in  making  an  estimate  to  furnish  samples  of 
the  stock  you  expect  to  use,  and  on  which  you  are  quot- 
ing a  price,  rather  than  to  base  your  quotation  on  the 
samples  furnished  by  the  customer.  I  am  fully  aware 
that  the  statement  "we  will  match  your  sample"  made 
to  a  customer  often  affords  the  printer  the  tempting  op- 
portunity to  substitute  a  cheaper  stock  than  the  sample, 
making  a  charge  for  the  higher  priced  stock  which  he 
should  have  used,  but  I  am  convinced  that  a  fair  degree 
of  business  honesty  is  the  best  policy  even  in  the  print- 
ing business,  and  the  submitting  of  your  own  samples 
with  your  price  will  obviate  the  possible  and  even  prob- 
able misunderstandings  and  complaints  from  your  cus- 
tomer. 

The  submitting  of  your  own  samples  also  gives  you 
the  advantage  of  being  able  to  suggest  that  a  different 
and  lower  priced  stock  than  the  one  suggested  by  your 
customer  may  be  used,  and  you  may  thus  be  able  to 
quote  a  lower  price  than  your  competitors  and  still  make 
a  profit  on  the  job.  The  matter  of  the  substitution  of  a 
cheaper  stock  for  the  one  called  for  is  one  which  is  al- 
ways open,  and  perhaps  will  always  remain  open  for  dis- 
cussion by  members  of  the  printing  trade.  It  is  often 


CARRYING  PAPER  IN  STOCK      29 

claimed  that,  as  the  buying  public  is  not  familiar  with 
the  comparative  values  of  different  papers,  it  is  proper  to 
hoodwink  customers  to  a  certain  extent  in  this  matter  of 
stock,  but  a  printing  house  that  has  a  reputation  to  sus- 
tain will  preserve  and  strengthen  a  reputation  for  busi- 
ness integrity  by  following  the  straight  and  honest  prin- 
ciple of  never  substituting  a  cheaper  stock  for  the  one 
called  for  without  fully  acquainting  the  buyer  with  the 
change. 

The  question  of  the  advisability  of  carrying  your  own 
paper  in  stock  or  of  buying  your  stock  from  the  dealer  as 
is  required  is  one  which  may  be  argued  from  both  sides. 
The  conditions  which  govern  each  individual  business 
would  probably  decide  this  question  for  the  proprietor, 
and  he  should  consider  his  own  capital  stock,  his  facili- 
ties for  storage,  the  amount  of  his  output  and  other  con- 
siderations before  deciding  which  policy  is  best  for  him 
to  pursue.  I  do  not  think  that  it  is  good  judgment  for 
any  except  the  largest  houses  to  attempt  to  carry  stocks 
of  book  or  cover  paper,  but  most  printing  houses  can 
carry  large  or  small  stocks  of  such  common  items  as  en- 
velops, flats,  bonds,  cards,  etc.,  which  are  sold  every 
day. 

If  a  house  has  the  output,  it  is  advantageous  to  buy  in 
carload  lots  direct  from  the  mills,  but  this  method  of 
buying  stock,  with  its  accompanying  saving  in  freight 
rates  and  on  account  of  quantity,  can  only  be  taken  ad- 
vantage of  by  the  larger  houses. 

The  same  condition  applies  to  the  matter  of  private 
water-marks.  If  you  can  use  enough  of  one  kind  of  stock 


30         CUSTOMS   OF    THE    PAPER,    TRADE 

to  have  your  own  water-mark  put  upon  it,  it  gives  you  a 
prestige  with  your  customers  that  you  can  not  secure  in 
any  other  way,  but  individual  circumstances  must  govern 
the  question  of  the  use  of  private  marks. 

The  estimator  must  be  familiar  with  the  prices  of  mak- 
ing envelops  and  with  the  cost  of  manufacture  of  hand- 
made envelops  of  special  sizes  and  stock.  If  this  work  is 
done  in  your  own  bindery,  you  can  gain  the  information 
from  your  cost  records,  and  if  the  work  is  sent  out  to  an 
envelop  maker,  you  can  easily  acquire  a  fairly  accurate 
knowledge  of  the  cost  per  thousand  for  the  making  of 
envelops  of  various  sizes  and  kinds. 

A  directory  of  the  paper  trade  of  the  country  is  of 
benefit  to  every  estimator.  Such  information  is  frequently 
published  in  small  pamphlet  form,  giving  the  names  of 
all  the  brands,  with  water  marks,  prices,  etc. ,  handled  by 
the  various  dealers  in  a  certain  territory,  and  these  books 
are  usually  sold  at  a  merely  nominal  price. 

A  knowledge  of  the  trade  customs  that  are  in  common 
use  by  the  paper  mills  of  this  country  is  often  beneficial 
to  the  estimator,  and  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  may 
not  be  familiar  with  these  customs  I  am  giving  a  sum- 
mary of  some  of  the  common  rules  of  the  paper  trade  as 
recently  published  by  one  of  the  paper  houses  in  connec- 
tion with  their  price-list : 

BROKEN  PACKAGES 

The  extra  time  required  to  count  out  and  repack  orders  for 
less  than  original  packages  and  the  resulting  waste,  compels  us 
to  make  a  small  additional  charge  above  the  prices  quoted  in  the 
list  on  all  orders  for  less  than  an  original  package  of  any  paper 


CUSTOMARY  PRICES    FOR   CUTTING      31 

or  cardboard,  except  when  the  broken  package  is  ordered  at  the 
same  time  and  in  connection  with  a  full  package  of  the  same 
goods.  An  original  package  usually  contains  a  ream  of  paper  or 
a  hundred  sheets  of  cardboard,  but  in  some  instances  a  less  quan- 
tity is  put  up  in  a  package,  and  in  such  cases  we  make  the  ex- 
tra charge  only  on  less  quantities  than  the  minimum  contained 
in  an  original  package.  The  quantity  contained  in  a  package 
and  the  amount  of  the  additional  charge  for  broken  packages  will 
be  found  mentioned  in  the  price-list  in  connection  with  each  class 

of  goods. 

CUTTING 

Our  prices  are  all  based  on  goods  in  stock  sizes  and  in  original 
packages,  and  as  it  is  necessary  in  order  to  cut  goods  to  maintain 
expensive  machines  and  men  to  operate  them  and  to  unpack  the 
goods  and  repack  them,  oftentimes  requiring  new  wrapping 
paper  and  twine  and  in  some  instances  special  crates,  we  are 
obliged  to  make  a  nominal  charge  for  each  and  every  job  of  cut- 
ting. We  shall,  however,  make  a  charge  in  all  cases  as  low  as 
the  amount  of  work  required  and  risk  involved  will  permit. 

The  following  list  shows  our  rates  for  cutting  regular  stock: 

1  to  5  reams  cut  i  to  i  sheets lOc.  per  ream 

1  to  5  reams  cut  to  smaller  sizes  than  J  sheet  15c.  per  ream 
Larger  quantities  and  complicated  cutting 

charged  at  time  rate  of 60c.  per  hour 

Minimum  charge  for  cut •    .   .  10c. 

Straw  box  or  pulp  board,  one  cut 15c.  per  bundle 

Each  additional  cut 5c.  per  bundle 

TRADE  CUSTOMS 

The  trade  customs  printed  herein  have  been  adopted  by  prac- 
tically all  paper  mills  making  the  grades  referred  to  and  are 
herewith  put  in  compact  form  for  the  convenience  of  the  trade. 

Minimum  basis  of  weight  for  standard  papers  to  be  as  follows: 

Machine  finished 25x38,  40  Ibs.  to  500  sheets 

Super  calendered 25x38,  45  Ibs.  to  500  sheets 

Enameled 25x38,  65  Ibs.  to  500  sheets 


MAKING    PAPER   TO    Q^RDER 


For  lighter  weight  papers  the  extra  cost  of  manufacture  to  be 
added  according  to  weight.  In  all  cases,  on  both  sheet  and  roll 
orders,  wrappers  and  twime  to  be  charged  at  the  price  of  the  paper. 

WRITING  PAPER 

1.  On  special  sizes  not  less  than  ten  per  cent  additional  price 
for  lots  of  less  than  one  ton. 

9.  On  special  colors,  or  colors  not  regularly  made  in  the  grade 
ordered,  ton  lots  or  less,  not  less  than  ten  per  cent  additional 
price.  One  to  two  tons  not  less  than  five  per  cent  additional. 

NOTE  A.  Applying  to  rules  No.  1  and  No.  2: 

Under  rules  No.  1  and  No.  2  the  quantities  mentioned  are  understood  to 
be  the  quantities  named  in  the  original  order  or  inquiry  and  not  the  quan- 
tities that  may  be  arrived  at  by  adding  the  ten  or  fifteen  per  cent  overrun 
provided  for  under  rule  No.  3.  For  example,  an  order  for  say  1,800  pounds  is 
an  order  for  less  than  one  ton  and  is  to  be  accepted  and  billed  at  the  ten  per 
cent  advance,  altho  when  made,  the  allowed  overrun  may  make  the  ship- 
ment aggregate  more  than  2,000  pounds. 

NOTE  B.  Applying  to  rule  No.  2. 

Under  this  rule  (Rule  No.  2)  mills  may  make  in  any  established  grade  for 
a  customer  buying  said  grade  regularly,  without  additional  charge,  such 
colors  as  may  be  decided  upon  as  constituting  the  regular  colors  of  such 
customer's  line. 

3.  On  special  orders  of  one  ton  or  less,  over-runs  not  greater 
than  fifteen  per  cent  to  be  taken  by  customer.  On  orders  for 
more  than  one  ton  over-runs  not  greater  than  ten  per  cent  to  be 
taken  by  customer. 

4.  Orders  for  less  than  a  full  package  not  less  than  ten  per 
cent  additional. 

5.  No  paper  made  one  weight  and  stenciled  another. 

6.  The  average  actual  weight  including  wrappers  not  to  ex- 
ceed two  and  one-half  per  cent  above  or  below  the  nominal 
weight.  Paper  within  this  range  to  constitute  a  good  delivery, 
and  to  be  billed  at  the  nominal  weight.  The  above  to  be  based  on 
items  of  one  size  and  weight  on  individual  invoices. 

7.  No  claims  allowed  after  paper  is  cut,  ruled  or  printed. 

NOTE  C.  Applying  to  rule  No.  7. 

Experience  has  shown  that  exceptional  cases  occasionally  arise  where  the 
fault  is  clearly  with  the  mill  and  where  an  absolutely  literal  enforcement  of 


RULES  GOVERNING  COATED  PAPER  33 

rule  No.  7  would  work  injustice  and  hardship  to  the  jobbers.  It  is  therefore 
understood  that  mills  will  enforce  the  spirit  of  this  rule,  deciding  excep- 
tional cases  upon  their  merits  and  according  to  the  rules  of  equity. 

8.  All  "make  and  hold"  orders  must  specify  an  ultimate  date 
for  shipment,  at  which  date  goods  are  to  be  billed  and  invoices 
taken  to  account  by  customer  whether  ordered  shipped  or  not. 

9.  Jobbers  or  manufacturers  desiring  special  water-marks  for 
their  customers  must  pay  the  cost  of  dandy  roll,  and  no  credit 
will  be  given  on  account  of  the  number  of  cases  ordered. 

COATED  PAPERS 

1.  Minimum  basis  of  weight  for  coated  book  (coated  two  sides) 
to  be  25x38-65  to  500  sheets.    For  lighter  weight  extra  cost  of 
manufacture  to  be  added  estimated  at  not  less  than  5  cents  per 
100  pounds  for  every  pound  or  fraction  thereof  below  the  mini- 
mum. 

2.  Minimum  basis  of  weight  for  coated  lithograph  and  label 
(coated  one  side)  to  be  25x38-55  to  500   sheets.    For  lighter 
weight  extra  cost  of  manufacture  to  be  added  estimated  at  not 
less  than  5  cents  per  100  pounds  for  every  pound  or  fraction 
thereof  below  the  minimum. 

3.  An  additional  price  of  not  less  than  one-quarter  cent  per 
pound  shall  be  charged  for  all  making  orders  of  less  than  5,000 
pounds  one  size  and  weight. 

4.  All  papers  shall  be  stenciled  and   billed  at   the  ordered 
weight  per  ream  where  variation  is  not  in  excess  of  5  per  cent 
above  or  below.  Paper  within  these  limits  to  constitute  a  good 
delivery.  All  paper  in  excess  of  five  per  cent  under  the  ordered 
weight  shall  be  stenciled  at  its  actual  weight  and  be  charged 
accordingly,  if  accepted. 

5.  Special  making  orders  shall  be  accepted  subject  to  over- 
runs as  follows: 

Under  2$  tons 20  per  cent 

2J  to  5  tons 15  per  cent 

5  to  10  tons 10  per  cent 

Over  10  tons 5  per  cent 


34   CLAIMS   FOR  UNSATISFACTORY  PAPER 

6.  No  printed  waste  to  be  returned,  and  no  paper  taken  back 
unless  damaged  before  delivery.  In  case  customer  desires  to 
make  claim  for  damaged  paper,  report  must  be  made  immedi- 
ately to  the  manufacturer,  in  order  that  the  paper  may  be  in- 
spected before  it  is  printed  or  cut. 


CHAPTER      FIVE 


ESTIMATING  COMPOSITION 

Some  Practical  Suggestions  on  Estimating  the  Cost  of 
Hand  and  Machine  Composition,  etc. 


HE  proper  estimate  of  the  cost  of  both 
machine  and  hand  composition  is  a 
thing  which  most  estimators  find  a  dif- 
ficult part  of  their  work,  as  the  actual 
cost  of  composition  as  shown  by  the 
cost  records  will  often  vary  materially 
from  the  most  careful  estimates  of  the  cost  made  before 
the  work  is  done,  and  any  information  along  this  line 
which  the  estimate  man  can  gain  should  be  most  cheer- 
fully received.  It  is  a  difficult  subject  upon  which  to 
formulate  any  fixed  set  of  rules,  but  the  benefits  of  ex- 
perience are  most  valuable  in  pointing  the  way  towards 
some  fixed  principles  which  will  be  of  value  in  practical 
work  of  this  kind. 

Hand  composition,  which  is  the  original  method  of  as- 
sembling type  for  printing,  is  still  performed  in  the  same 
way  that  it  was  two  and  three  centuries  ago,  and  the 
time  required  to  produce  a  certain  job  of  work  still  varies 

35 


36        CONSIDER    THE    AVERAGE    SPEED 

with  different  compositors.  The  union  scale  of  wages, 
however,  which  fixes  a  minimum  hourly  wage  for  each 
compositor  in  a  shop,  compels  the  estimator  to  find  and 
use  the  average  time  of  these  employees  and  to  make 
use  of  this  average  rate  of  speed  in  making  his  estimate. 
The  fact  that  one  man  will  compose  a  certain  piece  of 
copy  in  half  the  time  that  another  will  take  to  do  the 
work  need  not  interfere  with  the  general  results  in  a 
year  if  the  proper  average  is  used  in  making  the  esti- 
mates. Any  good  cost-finding  system  will  show  the  average 
cost  per  hour  for  hand  composition,  and  it  remains  for 
the  estimator  to  decide  the  length  of  time  which  certain 
work  will  require  to  produce.  Great  caution  should  be 
exercised,  particularly  in  close  estimating,  to  place  the 
time  required  for  a  job  high  enough  so  that  the  actual 
time  will  not  exceed  the  estimate.  A  compositor  will 
complete  a  certain  piece  of  work  in  one  hour  on  a  bet, 
where  he  would  frequently  take  from  one  and  a  half  to 
two  hours  for  the  same  work  when  working  for  his  regu* 
lar  wage ;  and  the  estimator  should  bear  this  fact  in  mind 
and  remember  that  the  compositors  in  the  shop  which 
they  represent  are  not  working  on  a  bet  nor  trying  to 
win  a  prize  for  speed  composition. 

In  estimating  composition,  it  is  important  to  know 
definitely  just  what  kind  of  a  job  the  customer  expects, 
and  a  sample  of  the  catalog,  booklet  or  other  piece  of 
printing  on  which  you  are  estimating,  furnished  by  the 
customer,  will  be  valuable  in  estimating  the  cost  of  the 
composition.  It  is  frequently  valuable  to  confer  with  the 
foreman  of  the  composing  department  regarding  the 


THE    PROOFREADING    ITEM  37 

length  of  time  required  for  a  certain  job,  but  you  should 
bear  in  mind  that  the  foreman's  estimate  of  the  time  is 
more  apt  to  be  too  low  than  too  high.  The  new  method 
of  estimating  the  cost  of  composition  by  the  square  inch 
may  often  be  used  as  a  check  upon  your  estimate  made 
in  the  usual  way  by  computing  the  number  of  hours 
which  you  believe  will  be  required  for  the  work. 

In  dealing  with  machine  composition  it  is  well  to  re- 
member that  no  matter  how  small  this  work  may  be 
there  is  always  a  certain  amount  of  handling  and  hand 
work  connected  with  it,  and  this  work  must  have  a  place 
in  the  estimate  of  the  composition. 

Proofreading  is  an  item  which  is  often  lost  sight  of, 
but  this  work  is  a  part  of  the  pay-roll  of  the  composing- 
room,  and  the  cost  of  proofreading  should  be  placed  in 
the  estimate  of  any  work  larger  than  a  small  envelop 
or  letterhead.  Remember  also  that  the  proofreader  re- 
quires a  copy-holder  who  must  be  paid,  and  that  the 
rate  per  hour  for  proofreading  must  necessarily  be  higher 
than  the  rate  per  hour  for  composition,  even  tho  the 
proofreaders  are  paid  the  same  wages  as  compositors.  A 
simple  way  to  estimate  this  cost  per  hour  of  proofreading 
is  to  divide  the  wages  of  the  copyholder  per  week  into 
those  of  the  proofreader  and  add  this  percentage  to  the 
amount  per  hour.  For  instance,  if  proofreaders  are  paid 
twenty-five  dollars  per  week  and  your  cost  per  hour  for 
composition  is  one  dollar,  the  cost  of  proofreading  would 
be  one  dollar  and  twenty  cents  if  the  copyholders  are 
paid  five  dollars  a  week,  which  is  twenty  per  cent  of  the 
wages  of  the  proofreader. 


38   CORRECTIONS  AND  ALTERATIONS 

The  matter  of  corrections  and  alterations  from  copy  is 
one  which  must  be  watched  very  carefully  in  making  an 
estimate,  because  the  cost  of  these  corrections  and  all 
revised  proofs  will  often  use  up  the  profit  which  has  been 
figured  on  the  composition.  Changes  from  copy  and  alter- 
ations of  any  kind  should  always  be  charged  to  the  cus- 
tomer at  a  profit,  and  in  making  an  estimate  it  often 
saves  future  argument  if  you  have  a  distinct  understand- 
ing with  the  customer  that  any  changes  from  copy  will 
be  charged  for  accordingly. 

Machine  composition  should  be  handled  in  an  entirely 
different  way  from  hand  work,  and  in  the  case  of  ma- 
chines which  have  a  distinct  keyboard  and  caster,  the 
cost  of  both  these  parts  of  the  work  should  usually  be 
estimated  separately,  as  the  time  required  to  cast  the 
type  for  the  job  will  not  necessarily  equal  the  time  re- 
quired on  the  keyboard. 

The  machine  composition  clubs  of  several  cities  have 
formulated  a  set  of  rules  governing  the  price  of  machine 
composition,  and  these  requirements  form  a  valuable 
basis  of  information  in  estimating  work  of  this  kind. 
Among  the  rules  set  forth  which  the  estimator  should 
bear  in  mind  and  adapt  to  his  own  use  as  far  as  practical 
is  the  one  which  makes  the  minimum  line  measure  twenty 
ems  of  the  type  in  which  it  is  set,  whether  on  a  slug 
casting  machine  or  one  casting  individual  type.  Copy  in- 
tended for  machine  composition  should  be  legible  and  an 
extra  charge  should  be  made  for  poorly  prepared  copy, 
such  as  that  written  on  both  sides  of  the  paper  or  any 
form  which  prevents  its  being  easily  handled.  Type 


MACHINE    COMPOSITION   CHARGES      39 

larger  than  eleven -point  can  safely  be  measured  as  ten-  • 
point  and  charged  at  this  price.    Counted  lines  to  run 
around  cuts,  initial  letters,  etc.,  should  be  charged  at 
double  price  and  measured  the  full  width  of  the  page. 
This  is  an  important  matter  in  estimating  composition,  as  J 
many  estimators  are  apt  to  deduct  the  space  occupied  by 
cuts  and  estimate  the  balance  of  the  space  as  straight 
matter.   Matter  set  over  thirty  ems  on  slug -casting  ma- 
chines should  be  charged  at  price  and  a  half,  and  if  the  i 
lines  contain  small  caps,  italics  or  black  face,  an  extra 
price  should  be  charged.    On  machines  casting  single  • 
type,  matter  over  forty-two  ems  wide  should  be  charged 
for  extra.   A  charge  should  be  made  for  alterations,  eveta 
where  no  change  of  the  machine  is  necessary,  and  where  • 
the  machine  or  type  must  be  changed  the  charge  for 
this  should  be  made  on  a  time  basis.  A  valuable  sugges-  : 
tion  that  applies  to  all  machine  composition  is  that  on 
jobs  of  less  than  five  thousand  ems  the  charge  should  be 
based  on  the  time  required  for  the  work,  instead  of  by 
the   thousand  ems.    Any  intricate  matter  containing ;  a 
large  proportion  of  figures  or  technical  matter  can  also  be : 
charged  on  a  time  basis  much  more  satisfactorily  to  the 
shop  than  on  a  basis  of  the  number  of  ems.    Matter  which 
requires  lines  to  be  centered  should  be  charged  on  a  time 
basis  or  in  some  way  to  cover  the  additional  time  required. 
Matter  running  line  for  line  may  properly  be  considered1 
as  objectionable  and  worth  a  better  price  than  strictly, 
straight  matter.  Leader  work  or  any  other  class  of  com- 
position requiring  two  or  more  justifications  should  be 
charged  for  at  an  extra  price,  the  Chicago  club  suggesting 


40  FORMS    KEPT  STANDUNG 

price  and  a  half  for  the  leader  work  and  double  price 
for  more  than  one  justification.  All  rush  jobs  of  machine 
composition  are  expensive  to  produce,  and  should  be 
charged  for  accordingly.  Cheltenham  and  other  skinny ' ' 
type  used  in  machine  composition  should  be  charged  for 
extra,  because  of  the  fact  that  there  are  more  words  and 
consequently  more  keyboard  work  to  the  line  than  for 
an  ordinary  roman  face  type.  Typewriter  type  used  on 
the  machine  should  pay  an  extra  price  as  well  as  five -point 
over  twenty  pica  ems  wide.  All  of  the  above  suggestions 
referring  to  the  proper  charges  to  be  made  apply  equally 
as  well  to  estimating  the  proper  cost  of  the  work,  as  an 
extra  price  is  necessarily  only  required  when  there  is 
extra  cost. 

•  In  plants  where  both  slug -casting  machines  and  single- 
type  casters  are  in  use  the  estimator  should  be  able  to 
decide  correctly  which  machine  the  job  in  hand  is  best 
suited  for  and  should  base  his  estimate  on  one  method 
of  composition  or  the  other  accordingly. 

Pick-ups  and  forms  kept  standing  should  be  a  profit  to 
the  shop  rather  than  a  convenience  to  the  customer.  It 
is  usually  more  satisfactory  merely  to  tell  the  customer 
that  the  work  can  be  produced  on  short  notice  than  to 
explain  to  him  that  you  are  keeping  the  form  standing 
on  account  of  the  saving  of  cost  that  can  be  accomplished. 
It  costs  more  money  than  most  printers  realize  to  keep 
matter  standing  in  forms,  because  such  a  practice  is  apt 
to  make  the  cases  low  and  seriously  hinder  the  produc- 
tion of  new  work.  Whenever  possible  a  re-order  on  a  job 
should  be  charged  for  at  the  original  price,  and  if  for 


MAKE-UP   AND    LOCK-UP 41 

any  reason  this  can  not  be  done,  an  amount  should  be 
figured  in  the  estimate  for  keeping  the  matter  standing. 

The  matter  of  make-up  is  one  which  is  often  extremely 
difficult  to  approximate,  but  a  set  of  rules  to  govern  the 
estimator  on  this  point  would  be  almost  impossible  to 
formulate.  Experience  is  the  best  teacher. 

The  item  of  lock-up  is  almost  equally  difficult  to  esti- 
mate. The  cost  of  this  item  necessarily  depends  upon  the 
size  of  the  form  and  number  of  pages  to  be  handled,  and 
careful  reference  to  the  cost  records  of  the  work  of  the 
shop  will  put  the  estimator  in  the  way  of  correctly  esti- 
mating the  cost  of  this  kind  of  work. 

The  equipment  of  a  plant  necessarily  affects  the  cost  of 
composition.  If  a  shop  is  well  equipped  with  type-faces  in 
good  quantity,  rules,  slugs,  leads,  etc.,  the  compositors 
will  make  better  time  than  they  can  possibly  do  in  a  shop 
where  there  is  always  a  shortage  of  material. 

The  individuality  of  the  purchaser  also  affects  the  cost 
of  composition  very  materially.  It  is  sometimes  difficult 
to  predict  the  peculiarities  of  a  buyer  and  to  judge  how 
far  his  personal  characteristics  will  affect  the  job,  but 
after  one  or  two  experiences  with  a  hard-to-please  cus- 
tomer, the  wise  estimate  man  will  be  ready  to  meet  his 
unreasonable  demands,  and  will  make  an  estimate  for 
him  high  enough  to  cover  the  changes  and  alterations 
which  he  knows  will  be  required  before  the  work  is  com- 
pleted. 


CHAPTER      SIX 

COSTS  IN  THE  PRESS-ROOM 

Suggestions  on  the  Profitable  Method  of  Estimating 
Press-Room  Costs 


T  HAS  often  been  said  by  men  in  the 
printing  trade  that  the  money  that  is 
made  or  lost  in  the  printing  business 
rests  with  the  press-room,  and  that  if 
the  press-room  can  be  made  to  show  a 
profit,  the  plant  will  be  able  to  pay 
dividends  to  its  stockholders.  While  this  may  or  may 
not  be  true,  the  press-room  is,  nevertheless,  an  impor- 
tant wheel  in  the  machinery  of  the  plant.  Almost  every 
job  taken  must  pass  through  the  press-room  before  it  is 
completed,  and  cannot  reach  the  bindery  or  delivery 
department  until  it  has  passed  thru  the  presses  in  some 
form.  While  the  recent  agitation  for  new  and  better  cost- 
finding  methods  would  tend  to  indicate  that  no  depart- 
ment of  a  printing  plant  is  more  important  than  another, 
by  reason  of  the  large  investment  required  in  the  press- 
room the  estimating  of  costs  on  this  kind  of  work  should 
receive  the  most  careful  attention  at  the  hands  of  those 

42 


ESTIMATING    ON    SPECIAL   PRESSES      43 

who  would  succeed  in  making  money  for  themselves  or 
for  their  employers  in  the  business. 

Presswork  in  a  modern  plant  now  includes  various 
classes  of  machines,  such  as  the  platen  press,  the  cylin- 
der press,  the  automatically  fed  platen,  the  automatically 
fed  rotary  press  for  small  work,  such  as  envelops,  etc.,  and 
web  presses  printing  from  a  roll. 

The  cost  system  in  use  in  a  shop  should  show  the  cost 
per  hour  of  operating  each  of  these  classes  of  presses, 
which  should  be  kept  distinct  from  one  another. 

The  estimator  finds  a  serious  problem  before  him  when 
he  comes  to  estimate  the  cost  of  the  presswork  on  a  job 
which  might  possibly  be  run  on  one  of  two  or  three 
classes  of  presses,  and  he  must  decide  which  press  can 
best  handle  the  job  and  at  the  lowest  cost.  If  a  press- 
room is  equipped  with  a  rotary  envelop  press,  all  envelop 
jobs  of  ten  thousand  or  more  which  can  be  run  satisfac- 
torily on  this  machine  should  be  estimated  at  the  low 
cost  which  this  sort  of  a  press  makes  possible.  If  your 
plant  is  the  only  one  in  your  vicinity,  however,  which 
operates  a  press  of  this  kind  and  you  have  no  competi- 
tion, there  is  no  reason  why  you  should  not  get  a  price  pro- 
portionate with  the  cost  of  running  this  kind  of  a  job  on 
a  platen  press.  Circumstances  should  govern  the  condi- 
tions, however,  and  the  estimator  should  be  thoroly 
familiar  with  the  work  and  capabilities  of  the  presses  on 
which  he  estimates.  It  is  not  usually  profitable  to  run  a 
lot  of  less  than  five  or  ten  thousand  envelops  on  a  press 
of  this  kind,  which  requires  a  curved  electrotype  plate, 
on  account  of  the  cost  of  the  plate  and  time  required  for 


44    ESTIMATING  ON   CYLINDER   PRESSES 

make-ready,  and  the  fact  that  often  two  or  three  plates 
will  be  required  to  complete  the  work.  These  sug- 
gestions apply  to  other  rotary  automatically  fed  presses. 
Platen  presswork  is  perhaps  the  commonest  and  most 
simple  form  of  presswork  to  estimate.  You  have  the  cost 
per  hour  of  the  press,  and  the  matter  of  the  time  re- 
quired for  the  make-ready  is  the  most  important  consid- 
eration. It  is  well  to  remember,  however,  that  large 
halftones  can  not  be  satisfactorily  run  on  a  platen  press, 
except  on  the  heavy  presses  made  especially  for  this  sort 
of  work  and  for  embossing,  dicing,  etc. 

In  estimating  work  for  the  cylinder  presses,  it  may  be 
necessary  to  figure  the  cost  of  running  a  job  on  a  pony 
press,  if  such  a  press  will  accommodate  it,  but  if  you 
know  that  your  small  cylinders  are  tied  up  with  work,  so 
that  the  job  in  hand  will  tfave  to  be  run  on  a  larger 
press,  you  should  estimate  the  cost  on  the  large  press  if 
possible.  This  is  a  matter  where  the  estimated  cost  and 
the  actual  cost  of  production  frequently  conflict,  and  the 
estimator  should,  as  far  as  possible,  obviate  any  discrep- 
ancy of  this  kind. 

Some  of  the  new  automatically  fed  presses  which  are 
being  placed  upon  the  market  successfully  handle  a  cer- 
tain class  of  work  which  would  otherwise  be  run  on 
some  of  the  other  styles  of  presses.  Several  of  these  types 
print  from  the  form  direct  with  automatic  feeding  de- 
vices and  permit  of  a  speed  of  from  four  to  six  thousand 
per  hour.  Web  presses  are  not  so  common  as  other  styles 
of  machines,  except  in  newspaper  work,  and  for  that 
reason  will  not  be  considered  in  detail  in  this  article. 


INKING   AND    SLIPSHEETING  45 

Knowing  the  cost  per  hour  of  operating  a  certain 
press,  it  remains  for  the  estimator  to  know  the  running 
speed  of  these  presses.  For  practical  purposes  of  estimat- 
ing, it  is  much  better  to  keep  a  careful  record  of  every 
run  made  on  the  presses  for  a  certain  period  of  time,  say 
one  month,  and  from  the  figures  thus  obtained  of  the 
total  production  of  printed  sheets  the  average  running 
time  of  each  press  can  easily  be  found.  These  records 
of  production  should  be  used  rather  than  others  not  actu- 
ally obtained  in  the  shop. 

The  item  of  ink  is  an  important  one  and  should  find 
a  place  in  the  estimate  of  every  job,  except  the  smallest 
orders  of  envelops  and  commercial  stationery  using  a 
minute  quantity.  The  estimator  can  often  obtain  valu- 
able information  as  to  the  amount  of  ink  required  for  a 
certain  job  from  the  foreman  of  the  press-room,  and  the 
number  of  pounds  and  cost  per  pound  of  the  ink  should 
be  taken  into  consideration  in  estimating  the  cost. 

Slipsheeting  is  an  item  which  should  never  be  forgot- 
ten. If  you  decide  that  it  is  necessary  to  slipsheet  a  job, 
place  this  extra  cost  in  your  estimate,  and  see  that  you 
get  a  profit  on  this  part  of  the  work  as  well  as  any  other. 
While  slipsheeting  can  be  done  by  comparatively  cheap 
help,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  it  usually  reduces 
the  speed  of  the  press  and  that  slipsheets  must  be  re- 
moved after  the  job  is  printed. 

Many  estimators  find  it  difficult  to  determine  just  when 
it  is  economical  to  make  electros  so  as  to  run  a  job  double 
or  with  several  forms  on  the  sheet.  This  can  only  be  de- 
termined by  experience  and  by  figuring  the  cost  of  the 


46 THE   MATTER   OF   SPOILAGE 

job  in  several  ways.  First,  if  run  single,  then  if  run 
double  with  one  electro,  and  possibly  on  the  cost  if  the 
job  is  run  with  three  or  more  forms  on  the  sheet.  The 
cost  of  presswork  can  often  be  materially  reduced  by 
doubling  up  in  this  way,  and  occasionally  a  saving  can 
be  effected  by  running  two  or  more  jobs  from  different 
customers  on  the  same  sheet  at  the  same  time.  The  esti- 
mator should  be  alert  for  such  opportunities  to  make  a 
profit  for  his  house,  and  in  running  a  small  job  on  the 
end  of  a  sheet  with  a  larger  one,  the  cost  of  presswork 
on  the  small  form  should  be  estimated  as  tho  it  were  run 
alone  on  the  press  which  would  be  required  to  print  it. 

The  matter  of  spoilage,  over  sheets  and  waste  of  stock 
in  the  press-room  should  receive  careful  consideration  at 
the  hands  of  the  estimator.  Some  jobs  require  more  ex- 
tra stock  than  others,  and  this  stock  will  some  times 
amount  to  as  high  as  five,  ten  or  often  a  greater  per  cent 
of  the  number  of  perfect  sheets.  Generally  speaking, 
fine  halftone  work  and  color  work  should  be  allowed 
more  stock  for  spoiled  sheets  than  ordinary  commercial 
work  or  work  run  in  one  color  without  cuts. 

The  matter  of  make-ready  is  an  important  one,  par- 
ticularly on  cylinder  presses,  where  the  time  occupied  on 
the  make-ready  will  often  exceed  the  running  time  of  the 
job.  Halftone  cuts  particularly  require  considerable  time 
for  their  make- ready,  and  the  estimator  can  not  be  too 
careful  in  determining  the  time  for  this  part  of  the  work. 
Any  changes  to  be  made  on  presses  during  the  running 
of  the  job  should  be  accounted  for  in  the  estimate,  and  it 
should  be  remembered  that  the  time  required  for  making 


EMBOSSING,  SCORING,  ETC.  47 

these  changes  takes  not  only  the  time  of  the  press, 
but  the  time  of  the  printer  and  lock-up  men  who  make 
these  changes.  If  a  press  is  kept  waiting  thirty  minutes 
for  a  change  of  form,  there  is  a  half  hour's  time  of  the 
compositor  in  making  these  changes  as  well  as  the  half 
hour  lost  by  the  press.  All  of  this  time  should  be  properly 
paid  for  by  the  customer,  altho  the  waiting  time  on  the 
press  may  be  considered  as  non-productive. 

Embossing,  scoring,  dicing,  perforating,  numbering, 
etc.,  done  on  a  press  may  properly  be  considered  to- 
gether, and  in  estimating  work  of  this  kind  great  care 
is  necessary  to  have  your  estimate  cover  all  of  the  actual 
time  required.  For  embossing,  the  cost  of  the  plate  must 
be  covered,  and  also  the  time  required  in  placing  the 
composition  die  on  the  platen  of  the  press  and  allowing 
for  it  to  dry  after  it  is  set.  All  this  is  in  addition  to  the 
running  time  required  for  doing  the  actual  embossing. 
Scoring  is  a  smaller  matter  and  can  usually  be  estimated 
on  about  the  same  basis  as  ordinary  presswork.  The  die- 
ing  out  of  paper  in  various  fancy  shapes  or  the  cutting 
of  stock  on  the  press  must  usually  be  run  at  a  slow  rate 
of  speed,  and  the  estimate  for  this  kind  of  work  should 
cover  the  time  required  in  making  the  die,  either  by 
hand  with  often  unhandy  tools,  or  with  some  of  the  new 
rule  cutting  and  bending  machines,  which  have  been  re- 
cently placed  upon  the  market.  Perforating  on  a  press 
is  usually  done  at  the  same  time  that  the  job  is  printed, 
and  in  such  case  its  cost  may  be  considered  as  practically 
nothing.  Numbering  on  a  press  may  be  done  either  at 
the  time  the  form  is  printed  or  in  a  separate  operation. 


48  SEVERAL    OPERATIONS1  IN    ONE 

In  any  event,  the  estimator  should  remember  that  there 
are  certain  combinations  of  numbering  that  can  not  be 
done  with  a  press  numbering  machine,  which  changes 
the  figure  automatically  at  each  impression.  Serious  losses 
have  some  times  been  occasioned  by  an  estimator  over- 
looking the  fact  that  the  kind  of  numbering  and  changes 
required  on  a  job  could  not  possibly  be  done  on  a  press 
at  the  time  the  job  was  printed. 

If  your  'press  equipment  is  such  that  you  are  able  to 
perform  several  operations  at  one  impression,  such  as 
numbering,  perforating  or  scoring  at  the  time  the  form 
is  printed,  it  does  not  necessarily  follow  that  you  should 
not  make  a  charge  for  this  work.  Take  advantage  of 
your  superior  equipment  whenever  possible,  and  you  will 
then  be  better  able  to  make  a  close  price  on  a  job  when 
you  are  actually  required  to  do  so,  in  order  to  secure  the 
order  from  some  competitor  as  well  equipped  as  your 
own  plant.  Estimators  should  take  a  broad  view  of  costs 
and  prices  of  presswork  and  make  their  figures  accord- 
ingly. Don't  give  away  the  benefits  which  improved 
machines  may  be  to  you  by  giving  the  customer  the  profit. 
When  necessary,  divide  the  profit  with  him,  but  never 
give  him  all  of  it. 


CHAPTER      SEVEN 


COSTS  IN  THE  BINDERY 

How  to  Estimate  Costs  in  the  Bindery  Correctly  and 
How  to  Make  Money  in  this  Department 

T  HAS  frequently  been  stated  that  most 
of  the  money  that  is  lost  in  the  printing 
business  gets  away  from  the  proprietor 
when  the  job  passes  thru  the  bindery. 
While  this  may  be  true  in  many  indi- 
vidual instances,  I  believe  that  such  a 


I 


condition  of  affairs  is  not  only  unnecessary,  but  can  be  as 
easily  corrected  as  any  other  errors  of  management  or  esti- 
mating in  other  departments  of  the  printing  business. 

The  new  cost-finding  systems,  which  are  fast  being 
adopted  in  the  printing  plants  of  this  country,  divide  the 
work  of  the  bindery  into  two  or  more  departments.  Girl's 
hand  work,  girl's  machine  work,  finishing,  forwarding, 
cutting,  ruling,  etc.,  are  all  treated  separately,  and  this 
division  of  labor  is  of  material  benefit  to  the  estimator  in 
giving  him  the  cost  per  hour  of  the  various  kinds  of  work 
handled  in  an  ordinary  bindery. 

Taking  up  the  various  kinds  of  work  which  are  com- 
49 


50 FOLDING    AND    SEEING 

monly  produced  in  a  bindery,  I  wish  to  offer  a  few  sug- 
gestions drawn  from  my  own  experience  and  observation, 
which  may  be  of  benefit  to  the  estimators  thruout  the 
country  in  correctly  appraising  the  cost  of  these  various 
operations. 

Taking  up  first  the  subject  of  folding,  the  estimator 
should  first  decide  correctly  whether  a  book  is  to  be  folded 
by  machine  or  by  hand.  In  arriving  at  the  proper  con- 
clusion, he  should  be  fully  conversant  with  the  size  and 
possibilities  of  the  machines  in  use.  If  a  job  has  several 
thousand  sheets  that  can  be  folded  on  the  machine,  the 
work  should  be  done  in  this  way.  If  they  cannot  be  ma- 
chine folded,  they  must  be  folded  by  hand,  and  the  time 
required  for  this  work  must  be  as  carefully  gaged  as  pos- 
sible. The  assistance  of  the  forelady  of  the  bindery  will 
often  be  a  valuable  help  in  correctly  estimating  this  and 
other  kinds  of  hand  work,  as  she  is  in  close  touch  with 
work  of  this  kind  and  has  a  fairly  accurate  idea  of  the 
time  required  for  almost  all  kinds  of  hand  operations.  It 
should  be  remembered  in  estimating  on  hand  folding  that 
while  a  single  fold  of  thin  paper  can  be  done  very  rapidly, 
because  several  sheets  are  folded  together  to  be  afterwards 
run  out,  the  time  required  on  two  or  three  folds  of  hand 
work  will  be  more  than  double  or  treble,  because  each 
sheet  must  be  folded  singly. 

The  estimator  should  familiarize  himself  with  the  sew- 
ing of  books,  and  if  a  sewing  machine  is  used  for  edition 
work,  he  should  understand  thoroly  the  capabilities  of  the 
machine  and  the  speed  which  is  possible  on  various  kinds 
of  work. 


MACHINE    BINDERY  WORK 51 

Such  work  as  padding  should  be  estimated  as  carefully 
as  other  operations,  altho  this  is  a  part  of  the  work  which 
is  often  entirely  ignored  in  making  a  price.  The  cost  rec- 
ords should  show  the  time  required  for  padding  all  work 
of  this  kind,  and  the  estimator  should  not  forget  Jhe 
boards  used  for  the  backs  of  the  pads. 

In  considering  the  cost  of  machine  bindery  work,  such 
as  sewing,  folding,  wiring,  stitching,  perforating,  punch- 
ing, etc.,  the  cost  per  hour  of  the  machine  should  be 
the  unit,  and  on  small  runs  it  should  be  remembered 
that  the  time  required  for  setting  and  adjusting  a  machine 
will  sometimes  equal  or  exceed  the  actual  running  time 
on  the  job.  For  ready  reference  in  making  quick  esti- 
mates it  is  possible  to  prepare  a  table  showing  the  cost 
per  thousand  of  such  work  as  perforating,  punching,  num- 
bering, round-cornering,  etc.,  in  various  quantities,  but 
in  actual  use  it  should  be  remembered  that  any  such 
table  of  figures  is  subject  to  variance  one  way  or  the  other, 
depending  upon  the  weight,  thickness  and  quality  of  the 
stock  used. 

Regarding  paper  ruling,  the  equipment  of  the  plant  has 
much  to  do  with  the  cost  of  this  kind  of  work.  The  cost 
per  hour  of  the  machine  should  be  taken  as  a  unit  in  esti- 
mating, and  the  fact  that  a  ruling  machine  is  machine  or 
hand  fed  may  perhaps  be  disregarded  in  an  estimate,  altho 
it  must  be  remembered  that  the  smaller  jobs  are  always 
hand  fed,  as  it  does  not  pay  to  take  the  time  required  for 
setting  an  automatic  feeder  on  small  jobs.  A  good  basis 
of  estimating  ruling  is  to  divide  the  stock  to  be  ruled  into 
reams  and  estimate  the  cost  of  setting  up  the  pens  and 


52  RULING   AND    REPAIR,  WORK 

ruling  the  first  ream  at  the  amount  of  time  that  will  be 
required,  and  then  add  the  balance  of  the  reams  at  the 
cost  which  the  speed  of  the  machine  on  the  job  in  hand 
would  seem  to  indicate.  On  all  small  or  complicated  work, 
however,  this  ream  basis  of  estimating  should  be  disre- 
garded, and  the  cost  should  be  estimated  solely  on  the 
basis  of  the  time  required  for  the  work.  If  your  machine 
will  permit  both  sides  of  the  paper  to  be  ruled  at  one  time, 
this  should  be  taken  into  consideration,  but  the  public 
need  not  necessarily  be  given  the  benefit  of  such  a  saving 
of  time. 

Rebinding  and  repair  work  is  often  an  important  part 
of  the  bindery,  and  the  cost  of  this  class  of  work  will  be 
found  to  vary  materially  in  different  shops,  depending 
upon  the  amount  of  work  which  is  done.  Repair  bind- 
eries, which  make  a  speciality  of  this  sort  of  work,  will 
repair  or  rebind  a  book  for  seventy-five  cents  and  make  a 
profit  on  the  work,  when  another  shop  will  show  a  cost 
of  one  dollar  or  more  for  the  same  amount  of  work.  This 
can  be  explained  perhaps  by  the  fact  that  employees  who 
become  familiar  with  this  repair  work  learn  to  do  it  more 
speedily  than  those  who  only  occasionally  handle  a  job  of 
this  kind,  and  the  cost  of  work  in  any  shop  may  be  re- 
duced by  bunching  orders  and  refusing  to  promise  quick 
delivery  on  any  repair  work.  By  doing  this,  a  number  of 
magazines  or  other  volumes  can  be  taken  on  together  and 
much  better  time  made  than  if  they  were  handled  in- 
dividually as  they  came  in. 

The  same  statement  regarding  the  varying  time  shown 
in  different  binderies  applies  equally  as  well  to  edition 


EDITION    WORK   AND    BLANK   BOOKS     53 

work,  case  making,  or  other  branches  of  the  trade,  which 
some  shops  make  a  specialty  of  doing  and  others  handle 
only  occasionally.  If  you  are  estimating  on  a  job  of  a  class 
of  work  which  is  not  frequently  handled  in  the  shop 
which  you  represent,  you  should  be  very  careful  to  make 
a  price  that  will  show  a  profit  when  the  work  is  com- 
pleted. Much  pamphlet  and  other  binding  of  this  kind  is 
produced  at  a  loss,  because  the  estimator  is  not  familiar 
enough  with  the  kind  of  work  to  be  able  to  make  an  ac- 
curate estimate  of  its  cost.  When  a  job  is  secured  it  should 
be  taken  up  with  the  foreman  of  the  bindery  and  plans 
made  to  handle  it  as  economically  as  possible  in  connec- 
tion with  the  other  regular  work. 

Blank  books,  which  almost  every  bindery  is  asked  to 
produce,  can  usually  be  estimated  by  considering  the  in- 
dividual time  required  for  the  items  of  folding,  sewing, 
stock  cutting,  forwarding,  finishing  and  the  cost  of  the 
stock  required.  The  estimator  should  be  familiar  with  the 
bindery  stock  carried  on  hand  and  with  the  current  prices 
on  leather,  cloth,  boards,  thread,  glue,  gold  leaf  and  other 
materials  used  in  finishing,  and  should  be  able  to  esti- 
mate correctly  the  amount  and  cost  of  stock  required  for 
any  job. 

The  making  of  loose-leaf  binders  and  sheets  is  similar 
to  the  manufacture  of  blankbooks,  and  the  cost  of  this 
work  should  be  estimated  in  much  the  same  way.  Many 
binderies  produce  large  quantities  of  loose-leaf  binders  of 
both  the  sectional  post  and  the  enclosed  back  styles  by 
purchasing  the  metal  parts  necessary  and  making  up  the 
binders  in  their  own  shops.  The  cost  records  in  binderies 


54  FORWARDING    AND    FINISHING 

where  this  work  is  commonly  done  show  that  binders  can 
be  produced  about  as  cheaply,  if  not  more  cheaply,  than 
those  bought  by  the  large  manufacturers.  The  cost  of 
crimping  and  punching  sheets,  which  two  operations  form 
an  important  part  of  loose-leaf  sheets,  should  be  thoroly 
understood  and  estimated  either  by  the  thousand  sheets, 
or  on  a  time  basis,  depending  upon  whether  the  job  is  a 
large  one  of  several  thousand  sheets,  or  a  small  one  of 
five  hundred  or  less. 

The  cost  of  forwarding  may  be  based  upon  a  careful 
study  of  the  cost  records  on  various  classes  of  work,  and 
in  shops  handling  a  considerable  quantity  of  blankbooks, 
it  is  sometimes  found  practical  to  estimate  the  cost  of 
binding  a  certain  sized  book  in  a  specified  style  at  a  cer- 
tain number  of  hours,  and  if  there  is  sufficient  work  to 
keep  one  or  more  forwarders  busy  on  one  kind  of  work,  it 
can  easily  be  ascertained  how  many  books  of  a  certain 
size  and  style  can  be  forwarded  in  a  working  day,  and 
this  information  is  valuable  to  the  estimator. 

Finishing  and  lettering  come  under  the  same  head  and 
should  always  be  estimated  upon  a  time  basis.  The  cost 
per  hour  of  this  work  should  include  the  gold  leaf  or  other 
materials  used,  altho  on  certain  classes  of  work  using  an 
extra  amount  of  gold  the  cost  of  this  material  should  be 
figured  as  a  separate  item. 

Apprentice  time  should  be  considered  on  work  which 
can  be  done  by  those  who  are  learning  the  trade,  and  the 
cost  per  hour  of  their  work  should  be  used,  taking  par- 
ticular care  that  you  dp  not  figure  this  reduced  cost  on 
classes  of  work  which  cannot  be  done  by  apprentices. 


CUTTING   AND   WRAPPING  55 

The  cutting  of  stock  in  the  bindery  should  be  estimated 
upon  the  proper  cost  per  hour  of  the  machine  and  work- 
man operating  it,  and  the  estimator  should  be  thoroly 
familiar  with  the  time  required  for  cutting  a  thousand 
pamphlets,  for  instance,  and  other  work  of  this  kind,  as 
this  is  an  item  which  is  often  overlooked  or  incorrectly 
estimated. 

There  is  always  more  or  less  wrapping  and  handling  of 
work  done  in  the  bindery  by  the  girls  to  assist  the  deliv- 
ery department  in  making  deliveries,  and  this  time,  par- 
ticularly on  a  large  job,  should  enter  into  the  estimate  as 
a  part  of  the  accurate  cost  of  producing  the  work.  Such 
items  as  wrapping  paper,  twine,  etc.,  should  also  be  ac- 
counted for,  if  the  job  is  such  that  there  is  an  appreciable 
cost  attached  to  those  items. 

With  a  proper  system  of  recording  and  estimating  the 
various  departments  of  bindery  work,  there  would  seem  to 
be  no  reason  why  the  bindery  should  not  pay  as  large  a 
profit  as  any  other  department  of  a  printing  plant.  It  is  a 
custom  among  certain  master  printers  to  estimate  one 
percentage  of  profit  on  paper  stock,  say  ten  per  cent,  with 
perhaps  twenty-five  per  cent  or  thirty-three  and  one-third 
per  cent  on  composition  and  presswork,  and  from  fifty  to 
one  hundred  per  cent  of  the  cost  for  profit  on  bindery 
work.  In  view  of  the  observations  above,  it  would  appear 
that  these  gentlemen  have  arrived  at  this  basis  of  making 
prices  from  the  belief  that  the  bindery  was  a  losing  propo- 
sition, unless  an  extra  large  profit  was  figured  on  the  work 
in  this  department,  but  I  believe  that  such  a  system  is  a 
mistaken  idea  of  the  true  condition  of  affairs.  With  an 


56  BINDERY   PROFITS 

absolute  cost-finding  system  in  operation  thruout  the 
plant,  I  do  not  see  why  a  larger  percentage  of  profit  should 
be  estimated  upon  bindery  work  than  upon  the  work  of 
other  departments  of  the  business,  and  I  believe  that  if 
the  suggestions  outlined  above  are  followed  out  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  careful  use  of  a  proper  cost-finding  system, 
the  best  results  can  be  obtained  by  estimating  a  uniform 
profit  on  the  work  of  the  bindery  with  that  produced  by 
other  departments. 


CHAPTER      EIGHT 


MISCELLANEOUS  ITEMS  OF  COST 

Estimating  the  Cost   of  Purchased  Items  and   Work 
Sent  Out  of  the  Printing-  Plant 

VERY  printer  is  frequently  asked  to 
quote  prices  upon  work  which  he  does 
not  actually  do  in  his  own  plant,  and  he 
is  expected  by  the  public  to  be  familiar 
with  the  various  trades  and  crafts  which 
are  allied  with  the  printing  business. 


E 


It  is  not  good  policy  to  inform  a  prospective  buyer  that 
you  don't  do  certain  kinds  of  work  in  your  own  plant,  if 
he  assumes  that  you  do  this  work,  and  it  is  often  poor 
judgment  to  admit  ignorance  upon  subjects  with  which 
you  are  reasonably  supposed  to  be  familiar. 

For  this  reason,  the  master  printer  and  the  estimator 
should  have  a  good  working  knowledge  of  the  various 
trades  which  are  allied  with  the  printing  business,  or 
which  the  public  have  come  to  consider  as  within  the 
province  of  the  printer. 

Photo-engraving,  electrotyping,  steel  and  copper  plate 
engraving,  embossing,  advertising  novelties,  art  work  and 

57 


58  WORK    THAT    IS    DONE  ^OUTSIDE 

many  other  subjects  come  within  the  class  of  work  which 
many  printers  do  not  handle  themselves. 

Any  orders  which  you  accept  for  work  which  must 
necessarily  be  done  outside  of  your  own  plant  should 
properly  pay  you  a  profit  above  the  price  which  you  must 
pay  for  the  work.  The  estimating  of  the  cost  is  naturally 
much  simpler  than  for  work  of  your  own  production.  You 
can  secure  from  the  trade  houses  with  whom  you  place 
your  orders  prices  and  estimates  upon  the  cost,  but  you 
must,  nevertheless,  have  a  fairly  thoro  knowledge  of  the 
work  referred  to  and  unusual  business  acumen,  if  you  ex- 
pect to  realize  a  profit  upon  work  which  you  do  not  handle 
yourself,  and  upon  which  you  may  be  asked  to  compete 
in  price  with  other  houses  making  a  specialty  of  this 
same  work.  It  is  therefore  somewhat  of  a  problem  to 
handle  trade  work  of  this  kind  upon  a  profitable  basis 
without  revealing  your  true  position  to  your  customer, 
and  thus  possibly  putting  yourself  in  a  bad  light  to  him. 

The  subject  of  this  chapter  may  also  properly  include 
various  items  which  enter  into  the  expense  of  operating 
a  printing  plant  which  may  not  be  treated  in  any  other 
way,  such  as  odd  jobs  of  cutting,  embossing,  etc.,  the 
handling  of  sketches,  drawing,  and  other  art  work  for 
lithographing  and  steel  die  embossing. 

Taking  up  some  of  these  items,  one  at  a  time,  we  may 
first  consider  the  matter  of  electrotypes  and  stereotypes, 
which  are  not  usually  produced  in  the  small  printing 
plant,  but  are  ordered  from  houses  making  a  specialty  of 
this  kind  of  work.  Stereotypes  are  but  little  used  in  this 
day,  except  for  the  curved  plates  used  on  web  presses. 


WHEN    ELECTROTYPES    ARE    USED        59 

Electrotypes,  which  are  copper  faced,  and  wear  longer, 
are  much  preferred,  altho  their  cost  is  somewhat  higher 
than  for  stereotypes.  Electros  are  sold  by  the  makers  on 
a  scale  basis,  and  every  estimator  should  provide  himself 
with  an  electrotype  scale,  which  will  enable  him  to  see 
at  a  glance  the  cost  of  an  electro  of  any  size  and  shape. 
Electrotypers  usually  allow  printers  a  certain  per  cent 
discount  from  the  scale  price,  but  in  any  event  the  cost 
of  these  plates  is  very  easily  found  from  the  printed  scale, 
with  which  every  electrotyper  is  supplied.  In  estimating 
any  printing  of  ten  thousand  or  more  copies,  electrotypes 
may  usually  be  used  to  advantage  by  making  plates  of  the 
original  type  form,  so  that  two  or  more  copies  may  be 
printed  at  the  same  time.  The  number  of  plates  to  be 
made,  so  as  to  reduce  the  cost  to  the  lowest  possible  point 
can  only  be  ascertained  by  estimating  the  presswork  in 
various  ways ;  that  is,  the  cost  of  the  presswork  if  the  job 
is  run  single  from  the  original  type  form,  the  cost  if  run 
double  by  making  one  electrotype,  and  the  combined 
cost  of  presswork  and  plates  if  more  than  one  electrotype 
is  made.  This  reminds  me  of  a  talk  I  once  had  with  a 
young  fellow  who  had  just  finished  an  experience  of  about 
one  year  in  the  office  of  a  large  printing  house.  He  said 
to  me :  I  would  like  to  estimate  printing,  and  I  know 
how  much  it  costs  per  hour  for  the  various  kinds  of  work, 
but  what  I  want  to  know  is  how  many  hours  does  it  take 
to  do  a  job?"  He  wanted  me  to  give  him  a  safe  and 
sound  rule  to  follow  so  that  he  would  know  the  number 
of  hours  that  would  be  required  to  produce  any  job  that 
might  be  offered  to  him  for  an  estimate,  and  he  could  not 


60  PHOTO-ENGRAVINGS 

understand  how  the  result  was  arrived  at.  Of  course,  I 
could  not  give  him  the  information  he  required.  Experi- 
ence is  the  great  teacher  on  that  subject,  but  after  years 
of  practical  experience  myself  in  this  particular  line  of 
work,  I  know  of  no  way  for  finding  the  most  economical 
way  of  doing  the  press  work  other  than  by  estimating  the 
cost  if  done  by  each  of  several  methods  of  handling  by 
electros  in  doubling  up  the  form.  It  is  the  only  sure  way 
of  reaching  the  lowest  cost. 

Halftones  and  zinc  etchings  are  sold  by  the  engravers 
on  the  square  inch  basis  with  a  minimum  price  for  ten 
square  inches  or  less.  The  estimator  should  be  familiar 
with  the  prices  charged  to  the  trade  by  the  engravers  and 
with  the  prices  which  the  engravers  are  in  the  habit  of 
making  to  the  public.  Best  results  can  usually  be  obtained 
by  a  printing  house  placing  all  its  engraving  orders  with 
one  firm,  and  keeping  in  as  close  touch  as  possible  with  this 
house.  It  is  folly  for  a  printing  house  to  attempt  to  com- 
pete in  prices  on  engraving  with  the  engravers  them- 
selves, and  when  asked  to  meet  hard  competition  of  this 
kind,  it  is  usually  better  to  frankly  inform  the  customer 
that  you  do  not  do  this  class  of  work  yourself,  and  if  it  is 
to  be  let  on  a  competitive  price  basis,  that  he  can  do  bet- 
ter by  dealing  with  the  engraver  direct. 

The  estimator  should  also  be  familiar  with  the  charges 
for  the  various  kinds  of  plates  that  are  produced  and  with 
the  charges  that  are  made  for  outlining,  vignetting,  cut- 
ting ovals  and  other  fancy  shapes,  etc. ,  for  which  the  en- 
graver always  makes  an  extra  charge.  This  information 
can  be  secured  from  the  engraving  house,  and  these 


STEEL   DIE   WORK   AND    SKETCHES       61 

extras  should  always  be  explained  to  a  customer  in  quo- 
ting a  price. 

Many  printers  take  orders  for  steel  and  copper  plate 
engraving  and  embossing,  turning  the  work  over  to  some 
trade  house  that  makes  a  specialty  of  work  of  this  kind, 
and  a  good  profit  can  often  be  secured  on  orders  for  call- 
ing cards,  wedding  invitations,  and  announcements  and 
business  and  society  stationery.  The  plates  and  dies  used 
for  producing  the  work  are  usually  retained  by  the  en- 
graver, and  as  the  engraving  of  the  die  or  plate  is  always 
an  important  part  of  the  cost,  the  estimator  should  ascer- 
tain whether  a  new  plate  will  have  to  be  engraved  or  not 
on  each  job  that  he  handles.  The  matter  of  quoting  prices 
on  this  class  of  work  is  not  difficult,  as  the  proper  prices 
can  easily  be  secured  from  the  house  to  whom  you  send 
the  orders. 

Sketches,  drawings  and  other  art  work  are  often  re- 
quired of  the  printer,  and  he  is  frequently  asked  to  esti- 
mate and  quote  prices  upon  work  of  this  kind  without 
consulting  with  the  artist  who  does  the  work.  An  esti- 
mator can  secure,  however,  from  the  artist,  a  more  or  less 
comprehensive  schedule  of  cost  for  various  kinds  of  work, 
and  he  should  be  careful  not  to  quote  prices  on  anything 
on  which  he  is  not  positive  that  his  information  is, com- 
plete and  accurate. 

Presswork,  machine  composition  and  bindery  work  are 
often  farmed  out  to  shops  making  a  specialty  of  trade 
work.  Where  this  is  the  custom,  the  estimator  should  al- 
ways secure  prices  from  the  trade  shop  on  the  job  which 
he  is  estimating  before  quoting  a  price  on  the  work.  He 


62  TABULAR    AND    RULE    WORK 

has  an  opportunity  here  to  secure  exact  costs,  as  the 
house  doing  the  actual  work  must  make  the  original  esti- 
mate and  take  all  the  chances.  It  is  essential,  however, 
that  correct  and  comprehensive  specifications  be  furnished 
to  the  trade  shop  so  that  there  may  be  no  misunderstanding 
as  to  the  price  to  be  charged.  Particularly  on  machine 
composition  there  should  be  a  mutual  understanding  as  to 
the  method  in  vogue  in  measuring  the  matter  set,  charges 
for  solid  and  leaded  composition,  and  for  other  details  of 
the  work,  such  as  proofreading,  corrections,  alterations, 
etc.  In  bindery  work  particularly  is  it  necessary  that  the 
specifications  be  complete  and  exact. 

In  estimating  upon  a  job  of  tabular  or  ruled  work,  it  is 
sometimes  advantageous  and  economical  to  make  zinc 
etchings  from  the  original  copy,  as  it  will  sometimes  be 
found  cheaper  to  have  these  photo-engravings  made  than 
to  set  the  type  and  rules  for  the  job.  The  estimator  should 
always  be  on  the  alert  for  an  opportunity  of  this  kind.  A 
case  like  this  recently  came  to  my  observation.  When 
bids  were  asked  on  printing  an  insurance  rate  book,  which 
was  almost  an  exact  reproduction  of  a  previous  book 
of  .tables  of  insurance  rates,  it  was  found  that  zinc  etch- 
ings of  the  pages  of  the  original  copy  could  be  made  much 
cheaper  than  the  composition  could  be  produced,  and  the 
total  saving  in  cost  on  the  job  was  considerably  more 
than  one  hundred  dollars.  Always  remember  that  any 
black  copy  on  white  paper  can  be  reproduced  by  the 
photo-engraving  process ;  also  that  certain  colors,  such  as 
red  and  orange,  reproduce  the  same  as  black.  It  is  a  good 
plan  to  learn  from  the  photo-engraver  who  handles  your 


QUOTING   ON    LITHOGRAPHY  63 

orders  what  his  facilities  are  for  reproducing  copy  in  col- 
ors, and  just  the  effect  of  the  various  colors  upon  a  plate. 

Lithographing  is  a  complete  trade  by  itself,  but  many 
people  do  not  discriminate  between  printing  and  litho- 
graphing, and  are  unable  to  detect  the  difference  in  the 
appearance  of  the  product  of  one  process  and  the  other. 
For  this  reason  the  printer  is  often  called  upon  to  give 
an  opinion  regarding  work  which  has  been  lithographed, 
and  to  quote  prices  upon  lithograph  work,  which  makes 
it  necessary  for  him  to  be  more  or  less  familiar  with  this 
process  of  producing  beautiful  soft  effects  upon  paper.  If 
a  printer  intends  to  handle  orders  of  this  kind,  he  should 
devote  considerable  time  to  learning  the  methods  in  use 
by  modern  lithographers,  so  that  he  may  be  competent 
to  talk  intelligently  upon  the  subject  with  his  customers. 
I  do  not  believe,  however,  that  it  is  good  policy  for  the 
ordinary  printer  or  estimator  to  attempt  to  quote  prices 
nipon  lithographing  without  first  securing  a  price  from  the 
[trade  shop  that  does  his  work,  as  the  subject  is  an  in- 
tricate one  and  not  easily  understood  in  all  its  details. 

The  making  of  the  sketch  and  the  engraving  for  new 
work  is  usually  the  principal  item  of  cost  on  a  lithograph 
job,  and  it  is  hard  for  a  man  who  does  not  handle  this 
class  of  work  every  day  to  estimate  correctly  the  cost  of 
engraving  of  various  kinds.  Lithographers  make  a  prac- 
tice of  keeping  the  engravings  used  on  every  job  which 
is  at  all  likely  to  be  ordered  the  second  time,  and  for  this 
reason  a  seemingly  low  price  can  often  be  made  on  a  sec- 
ond order,  altho  the  sacrificing  of  a  large  profit  in  this 
way  is  not  to  be  recommended. 


64  DIE   CUTTING   AND    NOVELTIES 

Some  lithographed  or  engraved  jobs  can  be  fairly  well 
reproduced  by  the  photo- engraving  process  and  printed 
from  the  zinc  etchings  produced  in  this  way,  and  the 
printer  can  often  secure  work  which  formerly  went  to 
the  engraver  or  lithographer  by  suggesting  that  it  be  pro- 
duced by  photo-engraving  a  copy  of  the  original  job. 

Good  prices  can  usually  be  secured  for  any  fancy  job 
of  die  cutting  which  may  come  to  the  printer,  and  simple 
machines  are  now  on  the  market  for  bending  and  cutting 
steel  rule  used  in  cutting  out  paper  in  various  fancy  shapes 
on  a  platen  press.  The  public  is  not  yet  familiar  with  this 
process,  and  for  this  reason  is  usually  willing  to  pay  a 
fair  and  even  an  extravagant  price  for  the  work.  The 
cost  of  making  these  dies  from  steel  cutting  rule  should 
be  estimated  in  the  same  way  as  the  cost  of  work  on  any 
other  machine,  altho  the  same  cost  per  hour  as  is  used 
for  hand  composition  may  safely  be  used,  as  the  invest- 
ment in  the  devices  for  bending  and  cutting  rule  is  not 
large  and  would  not  greatly  exceed  the  value  of  a  type 
frame  and  cases  at  which  the  compositor  would  ordinarily 
be  working. 

Advertising  novelties  will  usually  bring  a  good  price, 
and  their  cost  should  be  estimated  on  a  liberal  basis  by  a 
house  not  making  a  specialty  of  this  kind  of  work.  The 
man  who  wants  to  buy  an  advertising  novelty  of  any 
kind  is  usually  willing  to  pay  a  good  price  to  the  printer 
who  will  follow  out  his  ideas  in  the  matter,  and  the 
patron  is  at  a  loss  to  know  what  constitutes  a  fair  price, 
because  he  usually  doesn't  have  any  standards  by  which 
to  judge  of  the  value  of  the  work.  I  do  not  mean  to  infer 


PROFIT   ON    OUTSIDE   WORK  65 

that  the  printer  should  take  advantage  of  the  occasion  to 
overcharge  his  customer,  but  that  he  should  secure  a 
rather  larger  margin  of  profit  than  on  ordinary  commer- 
cial work. 

The  same  principle  of  pricing  applies  to  any  job  that 
may  be  considered  as  out  of  the  ordinary,  because  work 
of  this  kind  usually  costs  more  than  the  estimator  will 
allow  for  it,  and  in  such  cases  he  must  guard  against  his 
own  possible  poor  judgment  caused  by  unfamiliarity. 

It  is  a  hard  matter  to  state  just  what  percentage  of 
profit  is  reasonable  and  fair  to  charge  for  work  that  is 
sent  out  of  the  shop  to  be  done.  In  the  matter  of  electro- 
types, engraving,  lithographing,  and  steel  and  copper 
plate  engraving,  it  would  seem  that  the  proper  price  would 
be  the  same  that  the  producer  of  these  kinds  of  work 
would  charge  to  the  public,  especially  where  a  trade  dis- 
count is  given  by  the  manufacturer  to  the  printer.  On 
other  kinds  of  work,  twenty-five  per  cent  profit  above  the 
cost  would  seem  to  be  a  fair  margin  for  handling  the 
work.  In  some  instances  this  should  be  larger,  and  in 
others  conditions  would  indicate  a  smaller  margin  of 
profit,  especially  if  the  work  is  handled  in  connection 
with  straight  printing  done  in  the  printer's  own  plant. 
At  any  rate,  it  is  a  mistake  to  handle  any  job  which  must 
be  sent  outside  unless  it  pays  to  the  printer  a  fair  and 
reasonable  margin  of  profit  for  his  work  in  handling  the 
order,  probably  making  the  delivery  and  carrying  the  ac- 
count on  his  books  until  paid  for. 


CHAPTER      NINE 

ADVICE  FOR  YOUNG  ESTIMATORS 

Some  Hints  on  the  Possibilities  and  Proper  Methods  to 
be  Followed  in  Estimating  the  Cost  of  Printing 


ERHAPS  the  best  advice  that  can  be 
given  to  a  young  or  an  inexperienced 
estimator  of  printing  is  to  go  slow,  be 
careful  and  make  no  mistakes  thru  the 
common  error  of  careless  or  inaccurate 
attention  to  the  work. 
With  this  advice  to  start  on,  the  estimator  will  save 
himself  from  falling  into  many  of  the  errors  which  are 
so  easy  to  make  and    so  difficult,  if  not    impossible,  to 
remedy. 

It  has  been  said  that  a  doctor  buries  his  mistakes.  In 
the  same  sense  the  mistakes  of  the  estimator  are  often 
hoisted  into  view  to  become  a  sad  remembrance  for  years 
to  come. 

One  of  the  most  important  things  that  an  estimator 
can  do  to  further  his  progress  along  the  line  of  the  evi- 
dently arduous  occupation  in  which  he  is  engaged  is  to 
learn  early  in  his  career  to  profit  by  his  own  and  others' 

66 


POSSIBILITIES    OF    LOSS  67 

experiences.  He  should  not  only  profit  by  his  mistakes, 
but  he  can  profit  equally  as  well  from  his  successes.  If 
you  make  an  estimate  on  a  job  which  the  subsequent 
cost  records  of  the  work  when  it  is  produced  show  to  be 
correct,  let  the  facts  of  this  accurate  estimate  stick  in 
your  mind  for  future  reference  to  assist  you  in  preparing 
other  estimates  of  work  which  may  be  similar  in  charac- 
ter. The  value  of  detailed  knowledge  and  careful  obser- 
vation in  estimating  printing  can  not  be  overestimated. 
Even  the  older  and  more  experienced  men  in  the  game 
come  in  contact  almost  daily  with  situations  which  are 
new,  even  to  their  large  experience,  and  if  this  be  true, 
how  much  more  necessary  is  it  for  you  to  gather  and 
classify  in  your  own  mind  as  much  information  as  possi- 
ble of  the  thousands  of  detailed  bits  of  information  re- 
garding the  costs  of  the  various  operations  entering  into 
the  complicated  trade  of  printing  and  the  allied  crafts, 
with  which  you  daily  come  in  contact. 

There  are  certain  things  connected  with  the  estimating 
of  printing  which  may  properly  be  called  the  "hazard  of 
the  game."  Under  this  head  may  be  noted  unavoidable 
accidents,  breakage,  errors  which  escape  the  most  careful 
proofreading,  and  many  other  things  which  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  guard  against.  The  losses  occasioned  in  this 
way  may  appear  upon  the  cost  records  of  a  plant  under 
the  heading  of  spoiled  work ;  possibly  some  of  them  never 
appear  at  all,  but  in  any  event,  it  is  the  part  of  the  esti- 
mator to  guard  against  the  possibility  of  such  losses  as 
far  as  is  in  his  power  by  learning  quickly  to  gain  an  ac- 
curate and  comprehensive  view  of  every  job  which  may 


68  DELAY    IN    DELIVERY 

be  submitted  to  him  for  an  estimate.  Overtime  and  delays 
can  not  always  be  foreseen,  but  if  there  is  a  possibility 
that  overtime  will  be  required  upon  a  job,  the  estimator 
should  be  the  first  one  to  see  and  appreciate  the  fact  that 
the  cost  of  this  job  will  be  materially  advanced  by  this 
fact,  and  to  guard  against  possible  loss  on  the  job  by  mak- 
ing a  price  that  will  cover  the  additional  cost  or  expense. 

The  young  estimator  should  make  it  a  point  always  to 
understand  the  job  upon  which  he  is  estimating  thoroly 
before  starting  to  do  his  work.  He  should  insist  upon 
having  accurate  and  complete  specifications  from  the  cus- 
tomer before  he  makes  a  price  upon  the  work.  Particu- 
larly does  this  apply  to  the  matter  of  seeing  the  copy  be- 
fore estimating  the  composition,  and  the  estimator  should 
be  most  careful,  especially  in  handling  advertising  matter, 
such  as  posters,  etc. ,  that  the  copy  shall  be  submitted  to 
him  before  he  makes  an  estimate  on  the  cost  of  compo- 
sition. 

The  margin  of  delay  is  a  matter  with  which  the  esti- 
mator frequently  has  to  deal.  Most  jobs  are  required  to 
be  delivered  upon  a  certain  date,  at  least  the  printer  is 
asked  to  make  a  promise  of  delivery  upon  a  certain  time, 
and  modern  business  is  making  a  more  truthful  man  out 
of  the  printer  as  regards  these  promises  than  was  for- 
merly the  case.  It  used  to  be  told  of  a  printer  in  St.  Louis 
that  he  would  meet  a  customer  upon  the  street  who  would 
ask  him  if  he  was  going  to  deliver  a  certain  promised  job 
that  afternoon.  The  printer  would  reply,  We  certainly 
will,'*  and  would  then  hurry  back  to  his  shop  and  have 
work  started  on  the  job,  altho  he  knew  that  it  would  be 


SHOWING   SAMPLES    AND    DUMMIES      69 

absolutely  impossible  for  the  largest  shop  to  deliver  the 
job  on  the  date  promised.  Such  methods  are  not  in  line 
with  the  improvements  and  reformations  which  have 
taken  place  in  the  printing  trade  within  the  last  few 
years.  With  better  methods  of  ascertaining  costs  and  of 
estimating  work,  it  is  but  natural  that  the  printer  should 
be  more  careful  in  promising  the  delivery  of  work  and 
more  truthful  in  keeping  his  promises  in  this  regard.  It 
rests  very  largely  with  the  estimator  as  to  whether  a  job 
is  delivered  on  time  or  not,  and  he  should  be  familiar 
with  the  capacity  of  the  plant  which  he  represents,  and 
with  the  conditions  of  work  in  the  plant  at  all  times,  so 
that  he  may  make  intelligent  promises  of  delivery  with 
good  reason  to  believe  that  these  promises  can  be  kept 
without  unnecessarily  straining  the  organization  of  the 
plant. 

The  matter  of  showing  samples  of  stock,  composition 
and  dummies  to  prospective  customers  is  one  which  also 
naturally  falls  to  the  part  of  the  estimator,  and  a  practice 
of  this  kind  will  be  found  valuable  in  dealing  with  that 
class  of  customers  who  are  not  familiar  enough  with  print- 
ing to  buy  it  intelligently  without  first  seeing  some  rep- 
resentation of  the  job  which  they  expect  to  receive.  The 
salesman  can  be  materially  helped  by  supplying  them 
with  these  samples  and  dummies  to  submit  to  their  cus- 
tomers in  connection  with  the  price  made  upon  work,  and 
salesmen  and  estimators  should  work  together  along  this 
line  as  harmoniously  as  possible. 

In  estimating  upon  work  on  which  competitive  bids 
have  been  asked  the  wise  estimator  will  look  at  the  job 


70  REVISING    THE    BII} 

in  question  not  only  from  the  standpoint  of  his  own 
plant,  its  costs  and  its  equipment,  but  also  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  competitive  plants  which  he  believes  are 
bidding  upon  this  work.  He  should  be  more  or  less 
familiar  with  the  equipment,  prices  and  methods  of  esti- 
mating of  his  brother  competitors  so  that  he  may  be  able 
to  estimate  fairly  well  on  any  job  in  the  way  in  which 
they  would  do  so.  This  will  help  him  in  securing  work 
which  he  could  not  get  in  any  other  way. 

When  sealed  bids  are  asked  for,  these  bids  should  be 
made  specific  as  regards  the  character  of  the  work  which 
it  is  intended  to  deliver  at  the  prices  quoted.  No  matter 
what  the  specifications  may  call  for,  state  in  your  bid  just 
what  kind  of  a  job  you  have  estimated  upon  and  the  price 
for  this  work  described.  If  you  follow  this  plan  in  mak- 
ing sealed  bids,  you  will  never  put  your  house  to  the 
trouble  or  possible  loss  which  is  sometimes  occasioned  by 
a  loosely  constructed  bid  which  does  not  meet  the  require- 
ments of  the  specifications. 

Occasionally  a  bid  on  work  has  to  be  revised  to  meet 
some  changed  condition,  such  as  a  cheapening  of  the 
quality  of  the  paper  stock  to  be  used,  a  change  of  the  size 
or  number  of  pages,  or  other  matters  which  the  prospec- 
tive customer  may  demand  upon  the  job.  In  such  cases 
the  safe  plan  is  to  make  your  revised  bid  upon  the  same 
basis  of  profit  as  the  original  quotation,  for  if  your  orig- 
inal price  was  not  interesting  in  some  way  to  the  buyer, 
he  would  not  ask  you  for  a  revised  bid  under  the  new  and 
changed  conditions.  In  my  own  personal  experience,  I 
have  usually  found  that  I  can  secure  a  better  profit  on  the 


MAIL   ORDERS    AND    INQUIRIES  71 

revised  bid  than  on  an  original  quotation,  altho  this 
would  not  necessarily  be  true  in  all  cases. 

Every  estimator  should  make  it  a  practice  to  check 
over  his  estimates  after  they  have  been  made,  if  the  job 
is  one  amounting  to  any  considerable  sum  of  money.  Mis- 
takes will  happen,  and  it  is  very  easy  to  overlook  an  item 
of  cost  in  making  an  estimate  that  may  very  possibly  be 
noted  and  corrected  in  going  over  the  items  the  second 
time.  On  large  work  I  find  it  advantageous  to  have  one 
of  the  other  office  men  check  over  my  estimates,  and  I 
accommodate  him  in  the  same  way  by  checking  over  his 
work.  Every  man  must  necessarily  take  a  different  view- 
point of  a  job,  and  an  omission  or  error  in  an  estimate 
which  can  not  be  seen  by  the  original  maker  thereof  may 
readily  be  noted  and  corrected  by  the  second  party  who 
is  competent  to  do  this  sort  of  work. 

The  handling  of  mail  orders  and  inquiries  is  one  of  the 
hardest  things  that  comes  before  the  estimate  man.  Per- 
sons who  write  to  a  printing  house  for  prices  or  ordering 
work  are  very  prone  to  omit  some  of  the  most  important 
details  of  information  concerning  the  job,  and  it  fre- 
quently falls  to  the  lot  of  the  estimator  to  supply  this 
missing  information,  or  to  correspond  with  the  parties  in 
an  endeavor  to  secure  accurate  specifications  from  them. 
In  handling  work  of  this  kind  and  the  correspondence 
necessarily  incident  to  it,  the  estimator  should  be  more 
than  usually  careful  in  submitting  a  price  to  make  his 
own  specifications  on  the  job  which  he  is  quoting  upon. 
The  sending  of  samples  of  paper,  type-faces,  and  of  dum- 
mies is  particularly  valuable  in  handling  mail  orders,  and 


72        ESTIMATE    UPON    AVERAGE    TIME 

} 

the  small  expense  which  this  work  occasions  is  more  than 
offset  by  the  satisfactory  service  which  you  are  able  to 
render  to  the  customer,  and  which  will  in  most  cases  be 
thoroly  appreciated  in  the  long  run.  The  man  who  handles 
these  mail  orders  must  often  be  a  good  guesser  as  well  as 
a  good  estimator,  and  if  he  is  able  to  guess  correctly  nine 
cases  out  of  ten  on  the  many  varied  and  puzzling  propo- 
sitions which  come  to  him,  he  may  consider  himself  as 
unusually  successful  in  this  line  of  work. 

Young  estimators  should  try  to  avoid  falling  into  the 
error  of  using  in  their  work  time  and  speed  of  men  and 
machines  which  is  not  the  average  time  of  production  as 
shown  by  the  cost  records.  A  careful  average  of  time  on 
various  kinds  of  work  should  be  secured,  and  in  cases  of 
doubt  a  lower  rather  than  a  higher  speed  than  the  aver- 
age should  be  used,  so  as  never  to  fall  into  the  common 
error  of  estimating  a  lower  cost  per  hour  on  any  kind  of 
work  than  the  cost  records  show.  If  the  cost  per  hour  of 
a  certain  kind  of  work  is  one  dollar,  you  can  not  change 
this  cost  and  estimate  the  time  at  eighty-five  or  ninety 
cents  per  hour  on  a  certain  job.  It  is  far  better  to  cut  the 
profit  on  this  job  than  to  delude  yourself  into  thinking 
that  because  you  must  make  a  low  estimate  on  the  work 
you  can  change  with  a  stroke  of  your  pencil  the  cost  per 
hour  of  any  operation  entering  into  the  job. 


CHAPTER      TEN 


ESTIMATOR  AND  SALESMAN 

The  Harmonious  Relation  They  Should  Bear  to  Each 
Other  and  to  the  House  They  Represent 

HE  estimator  in  the  printing  plant  is 
placed  in  a  peculiar  position.  He  is  the 
buffer,  who  must  stand  between  the 
hard  knocks  and  attacks  of  the  customer 
and  possibly  the  salesman  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  attitude  of  the  house 


which  he  represents  in  their  natural  and  proper  effort 
to  secure  a  profit  on  work  and  make  dividends  for  the 
stockholders  at  the  end  of  the  year.  This  position  is 
often  a  hard  one  for  him  to  fill  with  satisfaction  to  his 
employers  and  pleasant  relations  with  the  salesmen  and 
heads  of  the  departments  at  the  same  time.  The  salesman 
will  often  seem  to  ally  himself  on  the  side  of  the  cus- 
tomer in  his  relations  with  the  estimator,  and  such  a 
condition  makes  it  depend  upon  the  estimate  man  to  pro- 
tect the  reputation  and  profits  of  his  house  against  those 
who  should  be,  and  who  perhaps  at  heart  are,  as  inter- 
ested in  its  success  as  himself.  In  speaking  of  this  condi- 

73 


74       WHEN    THE    SALESMAN   £AN    HELP 

tion  of  affairs  I  refer  to  a  plant  where  the  salesmen  do 
not  make  their  own  estimates,  but  bring  them  into  the 
office  for  the  estimator  to  make  the  price  which  shall  be 
quoted  upon  the  work.  It  should  be  the  part  of  the  esti- 
mator in  all  cases  to  act  harmoniously  with  all  those  with 
whom  he  comes  in  contact  insofar  as  it  lies  in  his  power. 
The  head  of  the  house,  the  estimator,  the  heads  of  de- 
partments and  the  salesmen  should  all  be  mutually  help- 
ful to  one  another,  and  if  this  is  not  the  case,  something 
is  radically  wrong  somewhere.  In  no  other  business  is  it 
more  important  that  a  proper  esprit  de  corps  should  exist 
between  these  various  units  of  the  business,  and  the  esti- 
mator seems  to  be  the  keystone  about  which  these  rela- 
tions group  themselves. 

The  estimate  man  is  frequently  required  to  read  the 
customer's  mind,  often  thru  the  medium  of  the  salesman, 
for  he  may  never  meet  personally  the  customer  upon 
whose  work  he  estimates ;  and  all  of  his  knowledge  of  the 
requirements  and  of  the  personal  characteristics  of  the 
patron  come  thru  the  salesman  who  calls  upon  him.  The 
estimator  is  frequently  required  to  get  the  specifications 
from  the  salesman  instead  of  from  the  customer  direct, 
and  he  should  endeavor  to  encourage  the  salesman  to  pro- 
vide him  with  as  full  and  accurate  information  as  possi- 
ble in  all  cases,  which  will  help  greatly  in  making  correct 
estimates  and  in  securing  work  at  a  profit  for  the  house. 

It  is  an  open  question  in  the  trade  as  to  whether  sales- 
men should  also  estimate  the  cost  and  make  the  price 
upon  work  which  they  secure.  Some  successful  master 
printers  contend  that  this  is  the  proper  method  of  conduct- 


SHOULD    THE    SALESMAN   ESTIMATE    75 

ing  business  with  the  public,  while  others  equally  as  suc- 
cessful contend  that  much  better  results  are  secured  by 
having  one  or  more  competent  estimators  in  the  office  who 
estimate  the  cost  of  all  work  and  make  the  price  upon  it. 
My  opinion  of  this  question  is  that  circumstances  alter 
cases.  If  a  salesman  is  thoroly  competent  to  estimate  and 
to  make  prices  upon  work,  I  see  no  reason  why  he  should 
not  be  permitted  to  do  so,  provided  that  he  keeps  in  such 
close  touch  with  the  operation  of  the  plant  which  he  repre- 
sents as  to  be  able  to  know  at  all  times  the  conditions  of 
work  in  the  plant,  so  that  he  may  not  make  the  mistakes 
which  he  might  do  if  not  thoroly  familiar  with  the  de- 
tails of  operation  from  day  to  day.  In  many  cases,  how- 
ever, a  man  may  have  marked  ability  as  a  salesman  of 
printing,  but  very  little  knowledge  or  ability  in  the  mak- 
ing of  estimates.  In  such  case  he  should  certainly  not  be 
allowed  to  quote  prices,  except  such  as  are  furnished  him 
by  the  office  estimator,  with  the  exception  of  prices  which 
might  be  established  on  certain  classes  of  small  work, 
such  as  envelops,  letterheads,  cards  and  other  items,  upon 
which  a  schedule  can  be  made  up  and  maintained.  An- 
other question  which  may  properly  be  considered  is 
whether  estimators  should  also  be  employed  as  salesmen, 
thus  dealing  with  the  public  direct.  Perhaps  the  same 
general  view  of  this  question  might  obtain  as  that  sug- 
gested in  relation  to  the  salesman  making  estimates.  Con- 
ditions in  the  plant  should  govern  the  work  of  the  esti- 
mator, and  in  all  except  the  largest  plants  of  the  country 
the  estimators  are  required  to  devote  more  or  less  of  their 
time  to  dealing  with  the  buying  public  direct,  in  making 


76  CONSIDERING    COMPETITION 

sales  to  them.  There  is  a  certain  advantage  which  accrues 
to  an  estimator  in  talking  to  a  customer  and  in  selling 
printing  to  him.  He  gets  a  different  point  of  view  from 
that  which  he  could  obtain  if  he  did  not  meet  the  public 
in  this  way.  There  is  some  knowledge  which  we  cannot 
obtain  by  shutting  ourselves  in  a  room  and  doing  our 
work  from  day  to  day  in  solitary  state,  not  mingling  with 
business  people  nor  getting  their  viewpoint  of  our  business. 

The  estimator  should  always  consider  the  competition 
which  he  may  have  to  meet  on  any  job,  and  he  should 
fortify  himself  as  far  as  possible  to  meet  this  competition 
by  becoming  familiar  with  the  competitive  plants  and 
their  methods  of  estimating,  producing  work  and  dealing 
with  the  public.  All  this  information  which  he  can  gather 
he  can  turn  to  account  in  many  ways,  which  will  redound 
to  the  credit  and  profit  of  his  house. 

An  estimator  owes  to  the  house  which  he  represents 
his  unfailing  allegiance.  He  should  estimate  for  a  profit 
in  the  same  spirit  he  would  if  he  owned  the  plant  en- 
tirely himself.  His  personal  interest  should  be  with  the 
house,  and  if  it  is  not  he  can  not  be  the  valuable  em- 
ployee which  his  position  should  make  of  him ;  and  his 
work  will  not  receive  the  appreciation  which  it  will  do 
at  the  hands  of  every  right  and  high-minded  employer. 
There  is  no  position  on  the  pay-roll  of  a  printing  plant 
which  carries  more  weight  and  responsibility  than  that 
of  the  estimator,  who  is  daily  and  hourly  called  upon  to 
use  his  judgment  and  to  make  decisions  which  involve  in 
almost  every  case  a  profit  or  loss  for  his  house.  This  re- 
sponsibility he  should  be  in  a  position  to  meet  and  carry, 


STANDING    BY    THE    ESTIMATOR  77 

and  in  most  cases  he  will  find  that  if  he  shows  a  spirit  of 
initiative  and  ability,  his  work  will  not  go  unrewarded, 
altho  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  work  of  estimating  is 
not  generally  paid  for  at  the  high  rate  which  its  respon- 
sibilities and  importance  would  seem  to  indicate. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  house  which  employs  an  esti- 
mator owes  to  him  its  backing  in  everything  which  he 
does.  If  a  man  is  competent  to  hold  the  position  of  esti- 
mator with  a  house,  he  should  have  the  unfailing  help 
and  assistance  of  the  house  in  whatever  he  does.  When 
an  estimator  makes  a  price,  it  is  a  mistaken  policy  for 
another  representative  of  that  house  to  quote  to  the  cus- 
tomer a  different  price  from  the  one  originally  made.  It 
not  only  causes  the  estimator  to  lose  confidence  in  his 
own  ability,  but  it  arouses  in  the  mind  of  the  prospective 
buyer  a  feeling  of  uncertainty  and  doubt  as  to  whether 
he  is  ever  getting  the  bottom  price  on  his  work. 

Referring  to  the  subject  of  salesmen  making  estimates 
upon  work  which  they  handle,  I  believe  that  all  sales- 
men should  be  taught  the  first  principles,  at  least,  of  cor- 
rect estimating,  and  the  schools  of  estimating,  which 
have  been  established  by  local  branches  of  the  United 
Typothetae  of  America  in  various  cities  in  this  country, 
should  be  of  inestimable  value  to  salesmen  in  the  cities 
where  they  are  located.  Many  salesmen  are  attending 
these  estimating  schools  and  are  deriving  much  benefit 
from  these  sessions,  which  are  usually  conducted  by  some 
experienced  and  competent  estimator,  who  is  familiar 
with  the  work  in  hand  and  who  is  able  to  give  to  young 
and  inexperienced  salesmen  information  which  they  can 


78 ESTIMATING    ON    TI^E    ROAD 

put  to  practical  and  constant  use  in  their  daily  contact 
with  the  public. 

The  office  estimator  is  often  required  to  show  the  sales- 
man many  of  the  things  which  he  should  know,  for  it 
will  not  do  for  a  representative  of  a  printing  house  to 
confess  ignorance  upon  a  subject  upon  which  he  may  be 
asked  for  information  by  his  customer,  unless  the  ques- 
tion is  one  regarding  an  intricate  subject  upon  which  he 
might  well  admit  his  ignorance.  He  should  be  armed 
with  as  complete  information  as  possible  to  assist  him  in 
dealing  with  his  patrons,  and  this  information  can  be 
best  given  him  by  the  office  man  who  does  the  estima- 
ting of  the  house. 

Salesmen  who  travel  on  the  road  and  sell  printing  must 
necessarily  be  more  familiar  with  the  subject  of  estima- 
ting than  city  salesmen,  who  have  more  ready  and  fre- 
quent connection  with  the  house.  Selling  on  the  road  re- 
quires a  higher  type  of  salesman  and  a  more  complete 
knowledge  of  estimating,  and  salaries  for  this  kind  of  work 
are  usually  higher  than  those  paid  to  city  salesmen,  who 
have  easy  access  to  the  information  of  the  office. 


H 


CHAPTER       ELEVEN 


FORGET-ME-NOTS  FOR  ESTIMATORS 

Things  to  be  Remembered  in  Estimating  Costs  and 
Quoting  Prices 

ORGET,  and  the  house  loses  money.  In 
no  other  business  is  the  necessity  of  at- 
tention to  small  details  so  important, 
it  seems  to  me,  as  in  the  printing  trade. 
The  smallest  lapse  of  memory  or  a  mo- 
mentary forgetful  ness  on  the  part  of  the 


estimator,  and  a  damage  is  done  which  may  amount  to 
a  considerable  loss  of  money  to  the  house  he  represents, 
as  well  as  causing  him  to  lose  to  a  certain  degree  his 
own  self-respect  in  a  business  way,  and  shaking  his  con- 
fidence. 

The  estimator  must  be  continually  upon  his  guard 
against  overlooking  any  of  the  details  which  enter  into 
an  estimate.  Constant  vigilance  is  the  price  of  success  in 
the  estimator's  occupation,  and  the  slightest  lapse  of  at- 
tention may  bring  serious  results. 

I  believe  that  every  estimator  suffers  more  or  less  from 
the  thought  that  possible  errors  may  creep  into  his  esti- 

79 


80  CHECKING    ESTIMATES 

mates  unknowingly,  and  certainly  without  intent;  but 
the  best  that  he  can  do  is  to  guard  himself  in  every  possi- 
ble way  against  omissions  and  errors  which  effect  his 
work.  Of  first  importance  is  to  always  secure  as  exact 
specifications  as  possible,  and  where  these  are  not  fur- 
nished, to  base  the  price  upon  specifications  furnished  by 
the  house  and  submitted  to  the  customer  with  the  quoted 
price.  This  will  often  be  the  means  of  saving  misunder- 
standings and  possible  loss  thru  the  customer's  not  ex- 
pressing himself  correctly  or  not  furnishing  complete  and 
accurate  information  regarding  the  job  on  which  he  asks 
a  price. 

The  estimator  must  never  forget  and  he  must  never 
overlook  details  of  cost  which  enter  into  an  estimate. 
The  checking  up  of  the  items  of  cost  after  the  estimate 
is  finished  is  a  great  help  in  guarding  against  errors  of 
this  kind,  and  where  there  is  more  than  one  estimator  in 
an  office,  it  is  a  good  plan  for  one  person  to  check  over 
the  figures  of  another  on  work  amounting  to  several  hun- 
dred dollars,  for  one  man  will  often  make  the  same  mis- 
take twice  in  checking  over  his  own  work,  whereas  an- 
other estimator  will  easily  see  the  error. 

Remember  the  ink."  Let  this  little  reminder  be  con- 
stantly before  you  in  estimating  work  of  any  kind  beyond 
commercial  printing.  This  little  item  of  ink  is  one  on 
which  many  printers  trip  to  their  own  loss,  but  I  believe 
that  the  trouble  can  be  very  largely  done  away  with  by 
the  estimator,  if  he  will  give  the  subject  the  time  and 
study  it  requires.  If  the  press-room  is  using  fifty  dollars' 
worth  of  ink  in  a  month,  this  ink  should  be  accounted 


INK    AND    SLIPSHEETING  81 

for — every  dollar's  worth  of  it  and  every  ounce.  It  is,  of 
course,  impossible  to  estimate  the  exact  amount  and  cost 
of  the  ink  used  in  printing  a  small  job,  such  as  five  hun- 
dred cards,  but  on  all  large  work  the  item  of  ink  should 
enter  into  the  estimate,  and  the  probable  cost  should 
be  calculated  as  exactly  as  possible.  Even  after  the  job 
has  been  secured,  the  ink  should  not  be  lost  sight  of,  but 
the  amount  used  on  the  first  thousand  or  two  impressions 
should  be  learned,  and  in  case  this  is  more  than  was  esti- 
mated, some  change  can  often  be  made  by  substituting  a 
cheaper  ink  or  mixing  it  in  a  different  way  so  as  to  reduce 
the  cost  or  quantity  that  will  be  used  on  the  balance  of 
the  job. 

The  matter  of  slipsheeting  is  closely  allied  with  that 
of  the  ink.  All  fine  halftone  work  must  necessarily  be 
slipsheeted,  but  there  is  a  great  deal  of  work  produced 
for  advertising  purposes  that  cannot  be  slipsheeted,  be- 
cause of  the  added  cost;  and  this  necessitates  careful 
handling  and  estimating  of  the  quantity  of  ink  and  speed 
of  press,  etc. ,  which  will  produce  a  result  satisfactory  to 
the  customer  without  slipsheeting.  The  cost  of  slipsheet- 
ing can  be  learned  from  the  records  of  the  press-room,  and 
the  estimator  should  remember  that  slip  sheets  must  be 
taken  out  as  well  as  put  in,  and  must  cover  both  of  these 
operations  in  his  cost. 

In  book  work  the  size  and  weight  of  paper  to  be  used, 
the  size  of  the  type  and  of  the  type-page  must  be  very 
carefully  considered,  as  a  difference  of  one-half  an  inch 
in  the  size  of  the  stock  may  make  an  important  change 
in  the  cost,  and  a  difference  of  two  hundred  ems  of  mat- 


82  THE    SIZE    OF    TYJPE 

ter  to  the  page  on  a  large  book  may  amount  to  half  the 
profit  on  the  job.  The  estimator  is  frequently  required  to 
state  the  number  of  pages  of  printed  matter  which  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  manuscript  copy  will  make,  and  this  is 
sometimes  difficult  on  account  of  the  character  of  the 
manuscript.  The  only  exact  way  to  estimate  the  number 
of  pages  which  a  certain  amount  of  copy  will  fill  is  to 
count  the  words,  then  compare  the  number  of  words  with 
a  table  showing  the  number  of  words  to  the  square  inch 
of  printed  matter  of  the  type  in  which  the  job  is  to  be 
set.  A  table  of  this  kind  or  a  scale  approximating  the 
same  thing  is  necessary  for  every  estimator,  and  he  should 
remember  to  allow  liberally  for  headings,  short  pages, 
cuts,  etc.  If  certain  copy  would  seem  to  fill  fourteen  or 
fifteen  pages,  estimate  it  as  sixteen.  You  cannot  run  fif- 
teen pages  in  a  book  and  fourteen  will  cost  as  much  or 
more  than  sixteen. 

In  selecting  type  to  be  used  on  a  job,  be  certain  that 
your  plant  has  the  equipment  to  produce  work  of  this 
type.  A  specimen  book  of  the  type  fonts  in  the  shop  will 
be  found  valuable,  and  the  size  of  each  font  should  be 
marked,  so  that  you  may  easily  know  whether  you  have 
sufficient  type  to  produce  a  job. 

In  estimating  work  which  is  to  be  run  on  automatic 
feed  presses  from  curved  electrotypes,  don't  forget  that  a 
plate  stretches  when  it  is  curved.  I  have  seen  cases  where 
it  was  necessary  to  reset  a  job  and  make  new  plates  or  to 
discard  all  the  stock  for  a  job,  because  the  curving  of  the 
plate  had  stretched  the  form  so  that  it  would  not  go  on 
the  paper.  An  ordinary  electrotype  stretches  about  six 


MAKE-UP   FOR   COLOR  83 

points  to  the  inch,  and  this  is  a  good  rule  to  go  by,  altho 
there  is  a  difference  in  the  amount  of  stretching  between 
a  large  plate  and  a  small  one. 

Another  small  but  important  detail  which  should  never 
be  forgotten  is  the  trimming  of  the  page  on  a  book,  and 
proper  allowance  should  always  be  made  for  this  purpose. 
As  a  general  statement,  allow  one-fourth  inch  on  every 
side  for  the  trim,  and  remember  that  in  trimming  a 
folded  edge,  the  knife  takes  off  just  twice  as  much  as  it 
does  from  a  flat  sheet.  You  can  not  print  a  book  with  a 
page  six  and  one-fourth  by  nine  and  one-half  from  twenty- 
five  by  thirty-eight  inch  stock,  and  the  wise  estimator 
will  be  extremely  careful  in  selecting  the  size  of  paper  to 
be  used. 

In  estimating  the  time  required  for  the  make-up  of 
pages,  remember  that  the  make-up  for  two  or  more  colors 
requires  more  time  than  for  one  color,  as  the  color  forms 
must  register  accurately  with  each  other.  My  experience 
leads  me  to  believe  that  as  a  general  proposition  the  fol- 
lowing holds  true :  If  a  printer  can  make  up  four  pages  of 
one  color  work  in  one  hour,  he  will  usually  make  up 
about  one  and  one-half  pages  of  two  color  printing  in  the 
same  length  of  time.  This,  of  course,  depends  very  largely 
upon  the  character  of  the  work,  but  is  based  upon  ordin- 
ary two-color  printing,  where  the  headings  or  cuts  are 
run  in  a  second  color.  In  estimating  folding  you  should 
be  certain  whether  the  job  is  to  be  folded  by  machinery 
or  by  hand,  and  when  you  have  correctly  settled  this 
point,  you  should  make  sure  that  the  work  is  done  in  the 
way  that  it  should  be  in  the  bindery  whenever  possible. 


84        NUMBERING   AND    PERFORATING 

The  subject  of  numbering  deserves  consideration,  be- 
cause numbering  is  done  both  in  the  press-room  and  in 
the  bindery.  Don't  make  the  mistake  of  estimating  on 
press-room  numbering,  if  the  work  is  of  such  character 
that  it  can  not  be  done  in  this  way.  Numbering  machines 
for  use  on  presses  usually  number  consecutively,  chang- 
ing automatically  from  one  number  to  the  next,  and  for 
this  reason  you  can  not  press  number  a  sheet  of  say  four 
coupons  which  are  to  be  numbered  consecutively  thru  a 
book.  The  first  sheet  would  number  one,  two,  three, 
four;  but  on  the  second  sheet,  where  the  number  five 
should  occur,  the  number  two  would  appear.  For  this 
reason,  work  of  this  kind  is  usually  done  in  the  bindery 
with  hand  or  power  numbering  machines. 

Perforating  is  also  done  in  the  press-room  and  in  the 
bindery.  Press-room  perforating  done  at  the  same  time 
that  the  form  is  bound  is,  of  course,  much  cheaper  than 
the  bindery  work,  and  a  good  plan  to  follow  is  to  esti- 
mate this  press  perforating  on  cheap  work,  such  as  busi- 
ness forms,  which  must  be  sold  at  a  low  price.  Bank 
checks,  drafts,  certificates  and  other  work  of  a  higher 
grade  should  be  perforated  in  the  bindery,  and  the  esti- 
mator should  be  familiar  with  the  comparative  value  of 
round  hole  and  slot  perforating,  if  both  these  kinds  of 
work  are  done  in  the  house  he  represents. 

The  estimator  should  never  allow  himself  to  be  in- 
veigled into  quoting  a  price  on  work  without  seeing  the 
copy.  Especially  is  this  true  of  circulars,  poster  work  and 
other  jobs  of  printing  for  advertising  purposes.  In  esti- 
mating the  cost  of  an  advertising  program  for  instance, 


SEEING   THE    COPY  85 

remember  that  the  more  advertisements  there  are  on  a 
page,  that  is,  the  smaller  the  advertisements  are,  the 
more  will  be  the  cost  of  the  composition  on  that  page, 
because  the  advertiser  will  usually  submit  about  the  same 
amount  of  copy  for  an  advertisement  of  this  kind,  whether 
his  space  is  large  or  small.  If  the  space  is  large  the  cost 
of  composition  is  small,  but  if  his  space  is  small,  the  mat- 
ter must  be  set  to  go  in  the  space  and  will  be  correspond- 
ingly higher.  Advertising  men  frequently  submit  to  the 
printer  a  lay  out,  as  it  is  called,  of  a  circular  without 
showing  copy,  but  the  printer  should  protect  his  own  in- 
terests by  insisting  on  seeing  all  of  the  copy  which  is  to 
go  into  the  spaces  marked,  before  submitting  a  quotation 
on  the  work. 

Proofreading  is  an  item  which  should  not  be  overlooked 
in  the  estimating  of  a  book  job  or  in  work  of  consider- 
able size,  and  it  should  also  be  remembered  that  many 
jobs  must  be  proof  read  thruout  twice  before  printing, 
which  would  double  the  original  time  required. 

Estimating  is  coming  to  be  an  exact  science,  and,  as 
such,  an  estimate  should  include  every  item  of  cost  enter- 
ing into  the  job.  You  can  not  afford  to  overlook  any  de- 
tail, and  it  is  better,  if  you  are  not  sure  of  your  informa- 
tion on  any  department  of  work,  to  estimate  its  cost  as 
nearly  as  possible,  rather  than  to  ignore  the  item. 

The  successful  estimator  must  remember  the  jobs  upon 
which  he  makes  prices,  even  after  the  work  is  secured, 
for  it  is  important  that  every  part  of  the  work  be  done 
in  the  manner  in  which  it  was  intended  it  should  be 
done,  if  possible.  Circumstances  may  necessitate  running 


86        DOING   THE   WORK   AS    INTENDED 

a  small  job  on  a  large  press,  but  this  should  be  obviated 
whenever  possible,  and  to  this  end  the  estimator  should 
work  in  harmony  with  tthe  salesmen  and  with  the  heads 
of  all  departments. 


CHAPTER       TWELVE 


TOOLS  AND  TABLES 

Time  Saving  Devices  for  the  Convenience  of  the  Esti- 
mator and  How  to  Use  Them 


E 


STIMATORS  are  usually  busy  men,  and 
in  order  to  succeed  in  their  chosen  vo- 
cation, must  learn  to  do  their  work 
speedily  as  well  as  accurately.  In  ad- 
dition to  increasing  the  output  of  the 
day's  work,  quick  estimates  impress  a 
customer  favorably.  Prospective  buyers  do  not  like  to 
be  kept  long  waiting  for  estimates,  and  so  little  does 
the  average  buyer  understand  the  methods  of  arriving 
at  printing  costs  that  nine  out  of  ten  callers  would  show 
no  surprise  whatever  if,  when  they  asked  for  a  price,  the 
estimator  should  take  from  his  desk  a  book,  turn  to  a 
certain  page,  and  without  any  hesitation  or  delay,  state 
exactly  what  the  price  would  be  on  the  job  in  hand.  Such 
quick  action  as  this  cannot  of  course  obtain,  except  on 
such  small  jobs  as  letterheads,  cards,  envelops  and  other 
small  items  of  commercial  stationery  on  which  there  may 
be  an  established  price,  but  the  estimator  who  has  con- 

87 


88  PRICE    AND    COST   BOOK 

venient  tools  and  tables  with  which  to  do  his  work,  can 
make  quicker  estimates,  give  customers  better  satisfaction 
and  add  to  his  own  value  and  importance,  than  he  can  do 
if  he  is  not  thus  equipped. 

Of  first  importance  in  these  tools  of  his  trade,  I  place  a 
combined  price  and  cost  book,  preferably  of  the  loose-leaf 
style,  of  his  own  manufacture.  In  this  book,  he  can  set 
down  from  time  to  time  as  the  information  comes  to  hand, 
various  details  of  the  cost  of  manufacture,  correct  selling 
prices  that  he  has  verified  from  the  cost  records  of  the 
shop  and  hundreds  of  small  items  that  are  too  much  of  a 
tax  on  the  memory.  All  this  information  should  be  in- 
dexed alphabetically  thru  the  book  for  ready  reference. 

My  own  personal  experience  with  a  book  of  this  kind 
shows  that  the  following  subjects  can  be  thus  covered  in 
a  way  intensely  practical  and  convenient : 

A  list  of  the  presses  in  the  plant  with  numbers,  styles 
and  size  of  forms  that  can  be  printed  on  them. 

The  court  rules  for  printing  briefs  in  effect  in  the  ter- 
ritory covered. 

Samples  of  all  the  punched  holes  that  can  be  produced 
in  the  bindery,  a  sample  of  each  of  these  holes  punched 
on  one  sheet. 

A  table  showing  the  selling  prices  of  small  pamphlets 
for  quick  reference.  This  table,  which  is  shown,  is  not 
intended  to  be  an  arbitrary  price-list,  but  the  prices  are 
high  enough  for  most  parts  of  the  country  so  that  they 
can  be  safely  followed  when  a  prospective  buyer  wants  an 
approximate  price  in  a  hurry. 

A  table  of  the  number  of  words  to  the  square  inch  of 


USEFUL   TABLES  89 

printed  matter,  also  shown,  for  quickly  estimating  com- 
position. 

A  table  of  the  comparative  weights  of  all  kinds  of  paper. 

A  table  showing  the  number  of  envelops  of  different 
sizes  that  can  be  cut  from  different  sizes  of  sheets  of  stock. 

A  table  showing  the  amount  of  stock  needed  for  any  job. 

A  table  of  standard  sizes  of  envelops,  cards,  tags,  let- 
terheads, noteheads,  billheads  and  statements,  etc. 

A  list  of  the  minimum  selling  prices  on  various  kinds  of 
work,  if  such  a  schedule  is  in  use  in  the  territory  covered. 

A  table  showing  the  delivered  cost  of  the  common  sizes 
and  styles  of  envelops  carried  in  stock  or  largely  used. 

The  selling  prices  of  envelops  in  lots  from  five  hun- 
dred to  ten  thousand,  printed  in  one  color,  on  the  various 
grades  and  sizes  of  envelops  frequently  sold. 

Samples  of  various  kinds  of  cuts,  zinc  etchings,  copper 
and  zinc  halftones  in  various  screens  to  be  shown  to  cus- 
tomers in  talking  illustrations  to  them. 

Illustrations  of  various  styles  of  bookbindings  for  the 
same  purpose.  An  ocular  demonstration  of  this  kind  will 
often  save  lengthy  explanations  and  give  the  customer  a 
much  better  idea  of  his  job  than  a  wordy  description. 

Any  exclusive  papers  carried  in  stock  should  also  be 
listed  in  the  price  book  with  the  cost,  delivered,  of  each 
grade.  This  information  can  be  made  more  useful  by  add- 
ing to  it  the  sizes  and  weights  carried  with  the  approx- 
imate number  of  reams  of  each  on  hand.  This  information 
must  be  frequently  revised  in  order  to  keep  it  reliable. 

Outside  of  the  price  and  cost  book,  probably  the  one 
most  essential  tool  of  the  estimator  is  a  standard  line 


90  SAMPLE    BOOKS] 

gage  showing  the  space  occupied  by  solid  and  leaded 
type  of  all  sizes  from  six-point  up  to  eight een-point. 

A  type  specimen  book  of  all  the  type  in  the  shop  is 
extremely  useful,  and  if  this  is  also  made  to  show  the  size 
of  each  font  it  becomes  still  more  valuable.  In  connection 
with  this  specimen  book  the  large  specimen  books  of  the 
type  foundries  should  be  kept  easily  accessible. 

A  stock  cut  book  of  cuts  and  ornaments  in  the  plant 
will  also  be  found  valuable,  together  with  the  stock  cut 
books  of  various  type  foundries  and  supply  houses. 

An  electrotype  scale  is  almost  a  necessity  in  estimating 
work  of  this  kind. 

A  book  showing  styles  of  type  used  on  calling  cards  and 
society  stationery  will  be  found  convenient  and  valuable  in 
estimating  and  selling  work  of  this  kind. 

All  of  the  suggestions  enumerated  above  have  been 
used  and  found  practical,  useful  and  convenient.  Many  of 
them  may  already  be  familiar  to  some  readers,  but  others 
who  are  making  estimates  daily  do  this  work  with  but 
few  of  the  helps  suggested.  Their  estimates  are  the  re- 
sult of  needless  effort,  oftentimes,  and  every  estimator 
owes  it  to  himself  and  to  his  employer  to  take  advantage 
of  all  the  short  cuts  that  may  be  offered  that  will  simplify 
and  shorten  the  time  necessary  to  do  his  work,  which  at 
its  best  is  arduous  and  attractive  only  to  those  of  keen 
mind,  active  brain  and  towering  ambition. 

For  the  benefit  of  estimators  who  may  not  have  the 
various  tables  suggested  at  hand  I  am  including  several 
of  those  referred  to  and  would  recommend  them  for  ready 
reference  in  practical  e very-day  work. 


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TABLE  OF  WEIGHTS 


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96 


REGULAR  SIZES 


A  table  in  use  in  a  western  city 


ENVELOPS 


BANK 

No.  6 
No.  6}4 
No.  6% 

NO!  7  ..!!!"""!'.!!!!!"  45-18  x  TJ 

No.  8  ........................  5x7) 

No.  9  ...................  3  15-16  X 

No.  10  .....................  4}£  x 

No.  11  ....................  4^x1_ 

No.  12  ......................  4%xll 

No.  14 


PAMPHLET 

No.  2  ....................... 

No.  8 


BARONIAL 

No.  4 8%  x  4  11-16 

No.  5 4  8-16  X  5  8-16 

COMMERCIAL 

No.  8 2  11-16  X  4% 

No.  4 2%X5H 

No.  5 8^x5j* 

No.  6 3%X6 

No.  6*4 3^x6 

No.  6% 3%x6^ 

No.  7 3Mx61S-16 

DRUG 

No.l Ittxgg 

No.  2 21-16X3& 

No.  3 2  5-16  x  3% 

PHOTOGRAPH 
Open  End 

Cabinet 4 13-16  x  7*4 

Wide  Imperial  Cabinet 5%  x  7H 


PORTFOLIO 

No.  1  ......................  5V£x896 

No.  2  ......................  6Mx8% 

No.  8  ..................  61-16X99-16 

REVERSIBLE 
No.  i  ........................  4  x  6*4 

No.2  ........................  5X7J* 

TAG  AND  ORE 

10Z  .....................  .....  3X4% 

2oz  ........................  3^x5M 

4oz  ............................  4x7 

COIN 

Open  End 
No.l 
No.2 
No.  3  ........................  3x4? 

No.  4 
No.5 
No.  6 

POLICY 

Open  End 
No.  10 
No.  11 
No.  12 
No.  14  ......................  5  x  i 


No.  3 


THEATER 
PAY 


No.2 

WALLET  FLAP 
"B"Hilltone 
"D"  ............  3%x53-16 

"D"  Lakewood  .........  3%  x  5  3-16 

"E"  Hilltone  .........  3  9-16  x  5  9-16 

"E"  Astor  ............  3  9-16  X  5  9-16 


97 


REGULAR  SIZES.  Continued. 
GOVERNMENT  STAMPED  ENVELOPS 

No.  1  2%x5J4 

No.  8 

4^}X9^3 

No.  2  8Mx5>i 

No  9 

4&6  T  10^4 

No.  8  3%X5% 
No.  4  3%  x  5% 

No.  10  

89-16x4% 

No.  5  3VS  X  65-16 
No  6                                     3^1  x  6  5-16 

No.  11  
No.  IS  

4Mx57* 

sMxeM 

No.  7                                          3%  x  8% 

No  14 

3M  X  6  5-16 

COMMERCIAL  CARDS 

Square  and  Round  Corner  Cards  are  the  same  size,  the  only  difference 
being  the  corners  on  the  Round  Corner  Cards 

No.  5  811-16x2 

No  63 

3%  X2% 

No.  7  313-16x2% 

No  70 

3%  X  2 

No.  8  4  1-16  x  27-16 

No.  84  

8  7-16  X  1  15-16 

No.  9^  4^  x  2  11-16 
No  36                                           5^4  x  8 

No.  88  

3^x115-16 

No  48                             4  9-16  X  2  11-16 

No.  117  

8X1  11-16 

No.  55  4  3-16  X  2  7-16 

Postal  

....                 .  5}4  X  3 

Government'  Postal  3M  x  5^£. 

Address  space. 
Address  space. 

5!^  x  1^ 

Government  Dbl.  Postal....  3^|  x  5^i. 
Opened    .  ... 

51^  x  1% 

72           78 

ENGRAVED  CARDS 

No.  11  3  3-16  x  1  13-16 

No.  52^i  

3  3-16  x  2^4 

No.  12  87-16x2  1-16 

No  53 

3J4  X  2  5-16 

No.  13  3  11-16  X  2J4 

No  56 

3x1  11-16 

No.  15  3X2  1-16 

No.  16  3^4  x  2  5-16 
No.  17  314  x  2% 

B  

213-16x2^ 

No.  20  876  x  1  9-16 

E  
D  

3%  X  2  11-16 
37-32  X  2  15-32 

No.  52  2%  x  2  1-16 

83-16  X  27-16 

TICKETS 

Die  Cut  Meal  Tickets..3  11-16  x  2^ 

Milk  Tickets.. 

2%XlJ4 

FANCY  STATIONERY 

No.  71—  87$.  Size  of  page..                                 

5^X5^ 

No  71  —  11     Size  of  page 

5zix7j4 

No.  71  —  6J4.  Size  of  page  

REGULAR  SIZES.  Continued. 

BILL  HEADS  AND  STATEMENTS 

All  Regular  Bill  Heads,  whether  1-6  (4%  x  8j*),  H  (&i  x  8*4),  M  (7  x  8^) 
or  ££  (14  x  8K),  have  the  same  depth  head  of  2M 
inches  and  are  8^  inches  wide 

Statements 

.  ..5^  x  8H  with  2%-inch  head 

.  .  .  .3%  x  8iH»  with  2M-inch  head 

fiXi  v  5'44  with  2'K-inch  head 

Head  and  Tail  Statements..^  x  8^  with  2%-inch  head  and  l*4-inch  tail 
Hotel  Statements                                                 ^>  *  n  with  2%-inch  head 

Grocers'  Statements 

4  x  9^  with  224-inch  head 

LETTER  AND  NOTE  HEADS,  ETC. 

Letter  Head 

8H  x  11  with  2^-inch  head 

8>£  x  7^  with  2Vi-inch  head 

Packet  Head  

6j^  x  9  with  2^-inch  head 

Note  Head 

5H  x  8f£  with  2}4-inch  head 

Hotel  Head 

.  5^-6  x  11  with  2V&-inch  head 

STANDARD  TAG  SIZES 
Sizes  here  noted  are  the  actual  space  from  the  edge  of 
the  eyelet  to  the  end  of  tag 

No.  1 

...f&xlW 

No.  5  4^6  x  2% 

No  2 

.   2%  X  1% 

No.  6  4%x2% 

No  8 

3^6  X  1% 

No.  7           5/^j  X  2% 

No.  4  

3%x2^j 

No.  8  5%X  3^j 

SIZES 

OF  FLAT  WRITING  PAPER 

Foolscap  or  Small  Cap  13x16 
Cap                                         i  A  v  1  7 

Super  Royal  20  x  28 

Double  Demy,  narrow  16  x  43 
Double  Demy  broad.             21  x  32 

16  X  21 

Folio             

17  x  22 

Double  Folio  2i  x  34 

Medium 

18  X  23 

Double  Medium,  narrow.  .  .  18  x  46 
Double  Medium,  broad  23  x  38 
Double  Royal  24  x  26 

Royal 

19  X  24 

Small  Double  Cap  .  . 

16  X  26 

Double  Cap 

.  17  X  28 

Cardboard,  full  sheet  22  x  38 

99 


BOOKS  ABOUT  PRINTING  *'-;  *'•*'' 

THE  ART  AND  PRACTICE  OF  TYPOGRAPHY.  By  Edmund 
G.  Gress.  This  is  the  most  elaborate  and  practical  book  ever 
published  in  the  interest  of  the  commercial  typographic  printer. 
It  is  unique  in  the  comprehensive  treatment  given  the  subject  of 
typography  from  the  job  printer's  viewpoint.  The  various  phases 
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tration. While  absolutely  practical,  there  is  an  atmosphere  of 
art  permeating  every  page.  The  book  contains  fifty  large  inserts 
in  color  and  seven  hundred  reproductions,  mostly  in  color,  of 
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THE  AMERICAN  MANUAL  OF  PRESSWORK.  This  is  with- 
out doubt  the  most  valuable  book  that  has  ever  been  prepared 
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illustrated.  Price  $4.00. 

HOW  TO  MAKE  MONEY  IN  THE  PRINTING  BUSINESS. 
By  Paul  Nathan.  Give  value  and  "charge  the  price"  might  be 
an  answer  to  this  question;  but  there  is  a  very  complete  and 
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TYPE  DESIGNS  IN  COLOR.  A  portfolio  of  more  than  one 
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paper,  postpaid  $1 .00. 

A  SYSTEM  FOR  A  MEDIUM-SIZED  PRINTSHOP.  5*4  xT, 
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THE  OFFSET  PROCESS]— FROM  A  PRACTICAL  VIEW- 
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TABULAR  COMPOSITION.  This  difficult  branch  of  typog- 
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EMBOSSING  —  HOW  IT  IS  DONE.  This  pamphlet  tells  how  to 
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and  useful  hints  for  the  man  in  the  press-room.  5%  x  7,  40  pages, 
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ON  THE  LAST  DATE 


BELOW 


25  CENTS 


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ST 

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